For once, all 27 agree. The Europeans validated on Wednesday the final chapter of the Union’s future migration policy, which toughens the reception conditions for asylum seekers and promotes a distribution of efforts across the entire continent.
For the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, it is even “a historic turning point”. Since the Syrian and Afghan refugee crisis in 2015, there have been endless discussions about solutions in the event of a mass influx of exiles into a European Union country. An agreement was finally reached on Wednesday October 4 to reform European migration policy. It took almost four years of these controversies, paralysis and psychodramas of which the European forum has the secret to finally arrive at a compromise.
A less protective text
The ambassadors of the 27 countries were able to put an end to the last chapter of the Asylum and Migration Pact, “in extremis” before the summit of heads of state on Friday in Spain. A major chapter since it defines how to organize, at 27 in times of crisis, in the event of a massive and exceptional influx of migrants, as in 2015-2016.
The text authorizes the establishment of a derogation regime that is much less protective than the current provisions. It allows, for example, to extend the duration of detention of migrants at the external borders of the Union, up to 40 weeks… and on the contrary, internally, to move more quickly in the examination of certain files, to be able to send them back more easily.
But this text also provides for solidarity measures, with a distribution of migrants across the 27 states and financial contributions for those who refuse.
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Don’t let the far right take over the subject
The reform has so far blocked because of Rome and Berlin, for completely different reasons. Germany considered the text too harsh and demanded more humanitarian guarantees for migrants. Rome, on the contrary, found him too conciliatory.
Giorgia Meloni’s right-far right coalition does not accept seeing Olaf Scholz’s country generously subsidizing a large number of sea rescue NGOs, whose boats bring migrants back to Italian ports. The subject has not yet been resolved, but the two countries have given the green light, which made it possible to reach a qualified majority. This migration issue which arouses so much dissension among Europeans is today the subject of unexpected convergences.
This text cannot be applied immediately, it will be re-debated and renegotiated by MEPs, but it is the last stone in the building. It opens the door to the adoption of the entire Asylum and Migration Pact, which includes a total of around ten rather restrictive regulations. The idea is to resolve the matter before the European elections in June 2024 and not to let the far right take over the subject.