2023-12-20 12:07:45
After years of discussion and an entire night of final negotiations, MEPs and representatives of Member States reached an agreement this Wednesday, December 20 in the morning, denounced by human rights defenders, on the thorny reform of the European migration system.
“A political agreement has been reached on the five files of the new pact on migration and asylum”wrote the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU on X (formerly Twitter).
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European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson welcomed a “historical moment”
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Coincidentally, this breakthrough came shortly after the adoption in France of a controversial law on immigration, which caused a crisis in the camp of President Emmanuel Macron due to the support of the far right.
A dominant topic in many EU countries
The asylum and migration pact, presented by the European Commission in September 2020, is a new attempt to overhaul European rules, after the failure of a previous proposal in 2016 in the wake of the refugee crisis.
It provides in particular for reinforced control of migrant arrivals in the EU, closed centers near the borders to return more quickly those not entitled to asylum, and a compulsory solidarity mechanism between member countries for the benefit of the States under migratory pressure.
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The political agreement will still have to be formally approved by the Council (member states) and the European Parliament.
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The objective is a final adoption of all the texts before the European elections in June 2024, while the question of immigration monopolizes the political debate in many European countries, against a backdrop of the rise of far-right and populists.
The reform, however, arouses criticism from human rights organizations. Around fifty NGOs, including Amnesty International, Oxfam, Caritas and Save the Children, wrote an open letter to negotiators on Monday to alert them to the risk of this migration pact leading to “a poorly designed, expensive and cruel system”.
MEP Damien Carême denounced a pact “which shames the most beautiful values of Europe”. “We come out with a text which is worse than the current situation (…) We are going to finance walls, barbed wire, protection systems throughout Europe”he said on X (formerly Twitter).
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No, Fabienne, this pact no longer respects anything and you know it. What you call the extremes of the left are those including me, who fought until the end for European values, while you compromised yourself in the theses of the extreme right. An indelible stain. Shame.
— Damien CAREME ???? (@DamienCAREME) December 20, 2023
Twitter – Damien CAREME ???? on Twitter / X
Mandatory solidarity
The reform discussed in Brussels retains the rule currently in force according to which the first country of entry into the EU of an asylum seeker is responsible for his file, with some adjustments. But to help Mediterranean countries, where many exiles arrive, a compulsory solidarity system is organized in the event of migratory pressure.
Other Member States must contribute by taking care of asylum seekers (relocations) or by providing financial support.
The reform also provides for a “filtering” migrants upon their arrival and a “border procedure” for those who are statistically least likely to be granted asylum, who will be held in centers so that they can be returned more quickly to their country of origin or transit.
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This procedure will apply to nationals of countries for which the rate of recognition of refugee status, on average in the EU, is less than 20%.
The Council (Member States) insisted that even families with children under 12 should be affected by such a procedure, which involves a form of detention, in centers located near borders or airports for example.
Increase in irregular arrivals in the EU in 2023
The European Parliament obtained guarantees on a mechanism for monitoring fundamental rights in these border procedures, on the reception conditions of families with young children, on access to free legal advice for migrants, indicated to AFP French MEP Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe), rapporteur of one of the texts.
Another approved text: a regulation on crisis and force majeure situations, intended to organize a response in the event of a massive influx of migrants into an EU state, such as during the refugee crisis of 2015-2016.
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Here again it provides for compulsory solidarity between Member States and the establishment of an exceptional regime less protective for asylum seekers than the usual procedures, with a possible extension of the duration of detention at the external borders of the bloc.
The EU is currently experiencing an increase in irregular arrivals, as well as asylum applications. Over the first eleven months of 2023, the Frontex agency recorded more than 355,000 crossings of the EU’s external borders, an increase of 17%. Asylum applications could reach more than a million by the end of 2023, according to the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).
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