EU Commission optimistic on asylum pact approval

The European Commission is optimistic about finalising the so-called pact on migration and asylum before next year’s EU elections, a high-ranking Commission official said. However, experts on the matter are not as positive.

The pact on migration and asylum was proposed by the EU executive in September 2020. Last week, the European Parliament adopted its position on the files and officially started negotiations with EU ministers.

The pact is composed of a series of regulations covering solidarity mechanisms, screening procedures for third nationals entering EU territory, and crisis management.

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The European Parliament voted in favour on Thursday of starting interinstitutional negotiations on two directives that would give third nationals legally in the EU and those granted international protection residence and the right to work with faster application procedures.

“We now have nine months to negotiate the legislative package,” a Commission official said, who is “positive” about the possibility of finalising the pact within the deadline.

They added member states as well as lawmakers had given signals of agreement with key points of the package.

However, EU ministers have yet to agree on most sub-areas before negotiations between the EU institutions – known as trilogues – can proceed.

In Germany, the three-party government – composed of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens – is also convinced that the EU negotiations will be “completed by spring 2024,” an interior ministry spokesperson told EURACTIV.

The distribution question

One of the “solutions” which, according to the Commission, has gathered “great approval” in the Council and Parliament concerns one of the most controversial issues in EU migration policy: the distribution of migrants among member states.

Under the current Dublin system, those arriving in the EU must always apply for the protection in the country they first enter, burdening Mediterranean countries such as Italy, Greece, Spain, or Cyprus with a disproportionate number of applications.

This system will be kept under the reformed Migration Pact, but is set to be accompanied by a so-called solidarity mechanism to relieve the burden.

According to the latter, member states can contribute to help first arrival countries in different capacities: by accepting quotas of migrants, but also by providing equipment or financial assistance.

To be part of the relocation mechanism and take in migrants from other EU countries, a member state has to voluntarily join a group of “contributing countries.”

According to the pact, in case of a crisis situation, assessed as such by the Commission, relocation becomes mandatory among contributor countries, while others can help with different means.

According to experts, however, these other means, such as payments, would not contribute significantly to eliminating the problem.

“I do not share the European Commission’s optimism about this so-called financial solidarity. Because it does not eliminate the strong disparities in burden-sharing,” Sergio Carrera, an expert on European migration policy at the think tank Centre of European Policy Studies (CEPS), told EURACTIV.

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The European Parliament together with the permanent representatives of Czechia, Sweden, Spain, Belgium and France agreed to approve the Pact on Migration and Asylum by February 2024, to ensure that the legislation is adopted before the next European elections in May 2024.

Migrant relocation voluntary

The crucial question will be whether enough countries are prepared to actually take in migrants rather than contributing financial aid. Here, too, the Commission is confident.

The mood among the member states was “clearly more positive” than during past negotiations on migrant distribution, the senior official said.

Moreover, they argued, many countries had already joined a non-binding declaration on more solidarity in 2022 when France was at the helm of the EU Council presidency – a move that is considered a litmus test for the mechanism.

The EU executive is therefore “optimistic” that sufficient support will be forthcoming.

A spokesperson for the German Interior Ministry also pointed to the fact that “next to Germany, a majority of European states” were participating in the 2022 agreement.

“Germany is committed to ensuring that a permanent, reliable solidarity mechanism is agreed upon at the end, in which participation is mandatory,” the spokesperson added.

However, Carrera showed less optimism on the success of the “contributing countries” system.

“I don’t think there will be many countries that will take in migrants voluntarily. If we look at this mechanism about voluntary solidarity, it has not worked at all,” he stressed.

[Edited by Eleonora Vasques and Benjamin Fox]