Italy-Albania migration deal highlights flaws of EU migration pact

Dear readers,

Welcome to EU Politics Decoded, where Benjamin Fox and Eleonora Vasques will bring you a round-up of the latest political news in Europe and beyond every Thursday. In this edition, we look at how the new Italy-Albania migration deal highlights the flaws of the EU migration pact.

Today’s edition is powered by the Party of European Socialists

Join us for the Congress of the Party of European Socialists

Europe is in the lead: protecting citizens, promoting democracy, and securing our position in the world. Progressive prime ministers, European Commissioners, and leaders meet in Spain.

Find out more →

Editor’s Take: Italy-Albania migration deal highlights the flaws of the EU migration pact

EU leaders are fond of pontificating about the importance of combining the so-called ‘internal dimension’ of migration (the policies for migration management within the EU) together with the ‘external’ one, such as EU-third country deals covering migration control.

The controversial deals with third countries, however, will not bring the desired result of stopping arrivals, since for any closed route, another human trafficking business will be developed on another new one, with the immediate result of many people suffering abuses from the smuggling network.

The external dimension of migration exists primarily because leaders know that the EU migration pact (the ten legislative files EU institutions are negotiating), even if adopted, will not make migration much more manageable. Because there is no interest in normalising the movement of certain categories of people within the Schengen area.

EU Commissioners such as Ylva Johansson and Margaritis Schinas have said several times that migration has to be solved at its roots. But the root problem of migration is not found in the countries of origin, but in the concept that those ‘migrants’ should not be coming to Europe in the first place and are, therefore, a problem.

Agreements with third countries are the collateral effect of the EU’s inability to agree on an EU framework of migration management that would be sustainable on the ground and at the borders.

Giorgia Meloni’s new cooperation pact with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to effectively outsource migration and asylum processing underscores the lack of confidence that the migration pact will solve the situation.

Even though it would facilitate some harmonisation of procedures, the pact follows the prevailing political will of EU states to keep people from reaching the bloc.

The Meloni-Rama agreement is more complicated than the others because Albania is an EU candidate country.

It is not even clear whether such a deal complies with international law. But it is clear that compliance with international law on migration is an optional extra for the EU27 and the EU, so long as everybody is happy.

Capitals-in-brief

Portugal set for snap elections after Costa resigns. Political parties in Portugal have urged President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to call early elections ‘in two months’, following Prime Minister António Costa’s resignation. Costa resigned on Tuesday after it was confirmed he is being investigated as part of a wider high-level corruption probe into mining and energy concessions.

Commission and Spain bicker over rule of law and Catalan amnesty bill. A letter from the European Commission to Madrid, expressing concerns about the rule of law in Spain and requesting information on a controversial law designed to give amnesty to the Catalan leaders involved in the 2017 secession referendum, prompted an angry response from the Spanish government on Thursday.

Tight migration laws mean labour shortages. Germany’s ‘strict’ immigration regime may be making it harder for the country to tackle looming labour shortages, Economy Minister Robert Habeck has warned. The German economy was 600,000 workers short of capacity in 2022, according to the German Economic Institute (IW), a think tank – a shortage that is only likely to grow as the population ages.

EU is not negotiating with Hungary, says budget tsar. EU Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn has told MEPs that the EU is assessing Hungary’s compliance with the rule of law requirements but is not negotiating the release of EU funds for Hungary, amid concerns that Budapest could use its stance on EU budget reform as leverage to unfreeze €22 billion in EU funds.

Dutch right could unite after November polls. Pieter Omtzigt, the leader of the New Social Contract party, which holds an opinion poll lead according to some surveys, has hinted that a coalition with other right-wing parties was an attractive option to form a government. Omtzigt indicated that a coalition could include outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD and his own former party, CDA.

Inside the institutions

Commission gives green light for Ukraine’s EU accession talks. The European Commission gave an ‘unconditional’ recommendation on Wednesday (8 November) for EU accession talks to begin with Ukraine and Moldova, paving the way for the bloc to take on its first new members in over a decade. Talks with Ukraine embroiled in a war with Russia since February 2022, should begin as soon as Kyiv adopts a law on lobbying in line with EU standards and strengthens national minority safeguards.

Parliament agrees text on parental rights guarantee. MEPs have agreed to their position on a draft EU law design to ensure parental rights are recognised across the EU. The regulation would guarantee that all families, including ‘rainbow families’ whose parent-child relations are not currently recognised in all member states, maintain parental rights when moving across the bloc.

Rules on political adverts to come into force after EU elections. EU lawmakers have agreed new rules on political advertising across countries, including a ban on foreign actors from sponsoring political ads before an election – but the rules will only apply after the EU elections. Pressure from EU ministers has ensured that the rules will not apply for 18 months and so will not apply to the EU elections next June, which was one of the main goals of the European Parliament.

Parliament sets out €13.8 million accessibility plan. The European Parliament plans to spend €13.8 million to implement a new physical accessibility policy featuring over 200 measures to improve physical and digital accessibility to its premises across the EU for people with disabilities, according to an internal document seen by Euractiv.

What we are reading

European governments must reassure voters that green costs will be fairly shared to avoid climate fatigue, argues Francesco Grillo in the Guardian.

Giorgia Meloni’s deal to outsource immigration and asylum claims to Albania will not address Italy’s migration crisis or satisfy the EU, writes Alessandra Bocchi in Unherd.

Donald Tusk, the likely new Prime Minister of Poland, faces the toughest task of his career as he cobbles together a new government, says Krzysztof Bobinski in EU Observer.

The next week in politics

It’s political group week in the European Parliament as MEPs prepare for their November Strasbourg session the following week.

The week after the European Commission presented its plans for EU accession talks for Ukraine and Moldova, EU foreign ministers will meet on 13 and 14 November.

Meanwhile, at an EU-ACP summit in Samoa, ministers will formally sign off the successor to the Cotonou Agreement, which governs political and economic relations between the EU and the 88-country bloc after close to four years of slow negotiations.

Thanks for reading. If you’d like to contact us for leaks, tips or comments, drop us a line at [email protected] / [email protected] or contact us on Twitter: @EleonorasVasques & @benfox83

[Edited by Alice Taylor]