2023-06-08 20:50:15
776613.1.260.149.20230608205015
BRUSELAS, 8 (EUROPA PRESS)
The Interior Ministers of the European Union have managed this Thursday to agree on a mechanism for the distribution of the reception of migrants arriving irregularly in the countries of entry to the European Union subjected to greater pressure from migratory flows, one of the pillars of the balance between “responsibility and solidarity” that governments sought to unblock the reform of the common asylum policy.
This agreement, however, is not the end of the path of reform, but sets the red lines for the Twenty-seven who must now negotiate the final version of the regulations for the control and processing of asylum with the European Parliament; which in practice paves the way to meet the objective of closing the Pact on Migration and Asylum before the next European elections, in June of next year.
“Thank you very much for this broad support”, said the Swedish Minister of the Interior and rotating presidency of the EU, Maria Malmer, after verifying that the necessary qualified majority was given to give the green light to the texts on the table, after a day negotiations between ministers. “We are much stronger when we work together,” celebrated, for her part, the Interior Commissioner and promoter of the reform, the Swedish socialist Ylva Johansson.
Migration has long been a “toxic” issue and the reform has been blocked for more than seven years due to the enormous differences between governments, Commissioner Johansson recalled at a press conference at the end of the negotiations in Luxembourg, for whom this Thursday It is a “historic” day, although the negotiation with the European Parliament, which insists on introducing mandatory relocation quotas, still lies ahead.
The agreement has been made possible after Italy lifted its reservations regarding the conditions for deporting migrants without the right to asylum who arrive in the European Union. Finally, only Hungary and Poland have voted against the agreement, although the delegations of Bulgaria, Malta, Slovakia and Lithuania have abstained because they are not satisfied with the text either.
The ministers have set the criteria and thresholds that they want to apply when activating a “flexible solidarity” mechanism that will force other countries to react when one of the partners is overwhelmed by the arrival of migrants, either by relocating in its territory to part of the people arrived or by paying an assessed compensation for each relocation that it rejects.
The final solution is the result of months of negotiation at a technical level led by the current presidency that Sweden is occupying this semester and that intends to guarantee the “balance” between the solidarity demanded by the countries of the south, such as Spain and Italy, and the lines Reds from the eastern and northern partners, who appeal to the “responsibility” of the former to contain the secondary movements.
The agreed formula establishes a relocation of a minimum of 30,000 migrants each year and a financial contribution of at least 600 million euros per year to the solidarity reserve of those governments that do not agree to grant asylum to the part that corresponds to them, which in the practice means that they must pay compensation of 20,000 euros for each rejected transfer. The proposal also foresees as an alternative a contribution in useful material for the management and control of the flows at the height of the value of the estimated compensation.
The European Commission will be in charge of carrying out an annual evaluation of the situation in each Member State and determining which ones are “under pressure” for not having the capacity to manage a sudden spike in asylum seekers or irregular arrivals. Based on this evaluation, Brussels will designate which countries can request to activate the “solidarity reserve” and go to it to request “reasonable and proportionate” support.
“Today we have taken a big step to provide Europe with a more efficient, more supportive and fairer asylum and migration system,” said the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in a statement sent at the end of the meeting.
He has also warned that together with these two key regulations in the asylum reform, the EU must also strengthen control of the external border, for which reason he has stressed that “the Pact will only work if we consolidate a robust and permanent preventive collaboration system with third countries of origin and transit of migration”.
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