On Thursday (September 28, 2023), the EU Council’s interior ministers discussed the last element of the asylum and migration reform package, i.e. the regulation on crisis situations.
This project was stopped at the end of July by the blocking minority co-created by Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria (they were against) and Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia, which abstained from voting, which in EU votes is tantamount to a courtesy form of opposition. – I would like to thank the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council for the changes introduced in the project. We already have a qualified majority. If we were not able to complete this work, we would continue to see misery and death in the Mediterranean. The EU’s external borders must be protected, especially if we want our internal borders to remain open in the future – this is what German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced today.
Poland against. Fooling the Italians
However, Poland and Hungary expressed opposition, but Spanish minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska declared an “undisputed majority” (without Germany, the blocking minority fell apart). And he forwarded the draft to the ambassadors to the EU for refinement, so that the EU Council – after once again checking the required majority – could enter into negotiations with the European Parliament with a refined document. However, Italy still remains a big challenge, and even today, at the ambassadorial level, Italy has been arguing with Germany about the easing of the restrictiveness of the new regulations towards migrants, as requested by Berlin.
– Is this pace really justified? It deprives us of such important legislative precision, and the proposed solutions are not a response to the crises Europe is facing, argued Polish Deputy Minister Bartosz Grodecki during Thursday’s debates. The crisis regulation being discussed today is built on the draft regulation on asylum and migration management adopted by the EU Council in June, which includes the “mandatory solidarity” rule opposed by Poland and Hungary. Grodecki reminded today in Brussels that, in Warsaw’s opinion, such regulations must be adopted by unanimity.
Negotiations on the asylum and migration reform package are under enormous time pressure to complete the term of office of the European Parliament next year, as well as before the presidencies of Hungary and Poland in the EU Council – already suspected of sabotage (the second half of 2024 and the first half, respectively). half-yearly 2025). The projects should therefore be agreed between the EU Council and the European Parliament by January next year in order to meet the formal votes of MEPs in time. However, the European Parliament froze these negotiations a week ago, demanding that EU countries first work out their position on all elements of the reform. Hence today’s acceleration in the EU Council.
New border protection system
The whole package of reforms has extend registration obligations, including taking fingerprints, of all migrants after illegally crossing the border (Eurodac regulation), introduce quick procedures for dividing them (screening regulation) into those with a good chance of being granted asylum, those who do not intend to ask for asylum, and – this is probably the majority – those who intend to ask but have no great chance. The latter group would be sent to a restrictive and accelerated “border procedure” (Regulation on a common procedure for international protection) aimed at quick consideration of applications and possible deportation. This would probably increase the number of migrants detained in closed centers pending a decision on international protection.
However, the regulation on crisis situations discussed today by the EU Council tightens the rules – or “lowers humanitarian standards even more”, as many international organizations put it – in the border procedure in the event of a mass influx of refugees, force majeure (e.g. pandemic) or instrumentalization of migration ( e.g. through Belarus). The project increases the proportion of migrants who would be sent to an accelerated border procedure and gives EU countries greater freedom regarding the period of detention in closed centers.
Minister Faeser’s consent to the “border procedure” in June already caused friction with the coalition Greens in the German government. That’s why Berlin is now demanding, among other things, excluding minors from special rules of crisis response regulations. He received some concessions today in the EU Council, and since the European Parliament has a much more pro-immigration (and even pro-relocation) position, Germany hopes that also thanks to MEPs, the final compromise – forged by the EU Council and the European Parliament – will regain some of the humanitarian rules.
Mandatory solidarity
The EU Council’s June agreement on the regulation on asylum and migration management introduces the principle of “mandatory solidarity”, in which relocation can be replaced by a cash equivalent currently estimated at EUR 20,000 per person. “If the assessment outlined in the EU Council’s (preliminary settlement) were to be carried out today, given that Poland hosts around one million people who have fled Ukraine, it is highly likely that Poland would be considered to be under (migration) pressure and therefore would therefore qualify for (benefit from) solidarity or a full reduction of solidarity contributions,” Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, has been repeating since June.
Johansson’s assurances are based on the provisions of the project, which require the European Commission to take into account, in annual assessments of the scale and forms of the required “mandatory solidarity”, the ongoing migratory pressure on individual countries, the threat of its instrumentalization, the migration situation determined, among others, by by the cumulative effect of migration in recent years, the number of asylums granted (and deportations carried out in previous years) and the number of refugees, including those staying on the basis of “temporary protection” (currently only Ukrainians). Johansson emphasizes that these are estimates for now, and the “mandatory solidarity” system is to be used in practice only from around 2026 and, moreover, it is intended as a long-term reform, e.g. for a dozen or so years.
Could Poland’s (temporary) exemption from mandatory solidarity due to its many Ukrainian refugees be a political solution to the relocation dispute? – Taking into account the pressure that refugee reception systems in Poland and other EU countries are under due to the presence of many Ukrainian refugees, this could be a way out of the current impasse – Alberto explained to us recently? Horst Neidhardt from the European Policy Center in Brussels. However, he emphasized that it may be difficult to convince the Southern EU countries that do not want to water down solidarity solutions. – Moreover, other EU countries, and later the European Parliament, may refuse to combine the specific needs of Ukrainian refugees, who benefit from freedom of movement within the EU and may not want to stay in Poland in the long term, with the challenges associated with accepting refugees from other countries, Neidhardt emphasized.
Polish reservations regarding Ukrainians
The EU Council today agreed to extend the provisions on “temporary protection” for refugees from Ukraine for an additional year, until March 2025. Poland tried to postpone this decision, because – as Polish diplomacy explained – Warsaw would first want a decision on guarantees regarding EU funds for refugees. These reservations were ineffective because there was no unanimity requirement on this issue. Thanks to “protection”, Ukrainians can freely live, work and use care systems throughout the EU.
According to Eurostat data, at the end of July, the main EU countries accepting Ukrainians under “temporary protection” were Germany (1.153 million), Poland (0.971 million) and the Czech Republic (0.357 million). At the same time, the largest number of refugees in relation to their own population was in the Czech Republic (33 per thousand inhabitants), Poland (26.4) and Estonia (25.9), and the EU average is 9.2 refugees from Ukraine per thousand inhabitants.
Source: Gazeta
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