EU leaders agreed a joint declaration calling for new legislation on returning irregular migrants, at summit in Brussels on Thursday (17 December).
The European Council statement calls on the European Commission – which is responsible for drafting new EU laws – to submit a legal proposal on returns “as a matter of urgency.”
National governments across the EU are under increasing pressure from voters to get a firm grip on immigration. However, many EU diplomats feared Thursday’s summit would fail to produce a substantive written agreement on migration.
The last attempt to update the EU’s laws on returning irregular migrants, in 2018, was waylaid by political disagreements in the European Parliament. Thursday’s declaration is essentially an instruction to the European Commission to try again.
“There has been a conflict [about migration] between ordinary people and the political layer in many European countries,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters as she arrived at the summit on Thursday morning.
One of several reasons EU diplomats doubted a deal was possible was the ongoing disagreement among member states over the bloc’s Migration and Asylum Pact. The pact is a major legal reform, agreed in May, that is due to take effect in 2026.
Member states have also argued about the proper enforcement of the current rules, particularly when it comes to who is responsible for processing asylum seekers’ requests.
The declaration stresses “the importance of implementing adopted EU legislation” – a reference to the Pact – and of the “application of existing legislation,” meaning the bloc’s current rules.
Placating Poland
Member states including Germany, France and Spain want to speed up the implementation of at least some parts of the Migration Pact.
But others – particularly Poland – object to provisions that could require them to help countries such as Italy and Greece shoulder the burden of asylum requests.
Poland has taken in large numbers of refugees from the war in neighbouring Ukraine. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime in Belarus is sending asylum seekers across the Polish border to put pressure on the EU. Finland and Lithuania face a similar challenge on their Belarussian and Russian borders.
Poland this week adopted a new migration strategy that restricts the right to asylum in response to the pressure from Belarus.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk sought recognition of his country’s predicament as a condition for agreeing any substantive conclusions on migration at Thursday’s summit.
The final text notes: “Russia and Belarus, or any other country, cannot be allowed to abuse our values, including the right to asylum, and to undermine our democracies. The European Council expresses its solidarity with Poland and with Member States facing these challenges. Exceptional situations require appropriate measures.”
The wording is based on a draft circulated ahead of the summit by leaders from the centre-right European People’s Party, which is the largest pan-European political grouping and includes Tusk’s Civic Platform.
An EPP source told Euractiv the centre-right alliance “fully backed” Donald Tusk’s temporary limitation of asylum rights, highlighting similar moves by Finland this year and Greece in 2020.
Speeding-up returns
The leaders also debated what novel methods could be used to increase returns of irregular migrants on their territory.
One of the most controversial matters discussed at the summit was the idea of return hubs, which would see asylum requests and repatriations processed in centres outside the EU.
But there was no consensus among EU leaders and the idea is not explicitly mentioned in the declaration.
In a press conference after the summit, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that return hubs “don’t tackle the problems and create new ones.”
Instead, the declaration obliquely says that “new ways to prevent and counter irregular migration should be considered.” It also calls for “enhanced cooperation with countries of origin and transit.”
Sarantis Michalopoulos and Alexandra Brzozowski contributed reporting.
[Edited by Owen Morgan]
Source: euractiv.com
