The period of negotiation and bargaining is over, now is the time to decide. The European Union has chosen to confront the revision of EU rules on asylum and put to vote the text that imposes “compulsory solidarity” on all member states, that is, they will either accept some of the immigrants. Those who come to the borders of their first country of destination, or at least help them financially, will have to dig into your wallet. Sweden, which holds the term presidency of the Union, decided to pass the consensus text reached after months of negotiations through qualified majorana.
Usually on a sensitive issue like immigrants, Brussels has always tried to reach a consensus, but this time it was not possible. During the 2016 crisis, Jean-Claude Juncker’s Commission tried to approve forced relocation by a majority vote, but this attempt was unsuccessful due to fierce opposition from then-President of the European Council Donald Tusk of Poland. But today there are no longer forced displacements, only compulsory solidarity. “We’ve been very clear throughout the process: The final vote will be by qualified majority. It’s the only way to reach agreement. If we had to seek consensus, we would never have ratified it, so let’s use whatever is in the agreements.” “Let us and vote by qualified majority,” said a senior EU official.
Today, at the Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, where the final steps will be taken, a historic reform, such as the reform of asylum rules, which had been expected for years, actually exploded in 2016, could be approved. One million people, mostly fleeing the war in Syria, reached our continent via the Mediterranean. However, today’s vote may be on the cutting edge, diplomatic sources say the odds of it going one way or another are “50/50”. Countries of the so-called Visegrad group, such as Mateusz Morawiecki’s Poland and Viktor Orban’s Hungary, Giorgia Meloni’s allies in Europe, practically oppose everything: they do not want to accept refugees, but at the same time neither financially nor They do not want to contribute financially. providing logistical support (‘forced solidarity’ can be operational as well as financial), for example by providing border surveillance helicopters or drones, equipment, uniforms or organizing repatriations.
“Obviously we need to calculate the qualified majority, I don’t know if it is now, but based on the mood in the room, we will do the calculations to see if we will continue to vote,” the source added. It would be very embarrassing to refuse. The vote of Italy, which diplomatically had a hard time supporting this reform hated by its Eastern allies, and which didn’t make much noise to support it publicly, even though it was actually working in the control rooms, could be decisive. in favour, despite wanting more. The Meloni government has long insisted that the important thing to block flows is external size, agreements with countries of origin, that immigrants should not really come to Europe. Music to the ears of leaders like Orban.
But whether we like it or not, immigrants are knocking on our door: In 2022, around 330,000 irregular arrivals were registered in the EU (all routes), the highest number since 2016. And these people can’t be helped, only I load first entry countries like ours. The source explained that, according to the most optimistic calculations, it would be “possible” to reach a qualified majority in the Council without Italy, but this is definitely “undesirable”. The green light of one of the countries most affected by migration flows would be fundamental, even from a simple viewpoint. In the end, it’s hard to imagine that Minister Matteo Piantedosi could really blow up the table of a text that, although improvable, would certainly be very useful for our country. The European Council is expected at the end of July, another possibility would be to send everyone back to the leaders’ table, but the Swedes seem determined to keep going.
Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson was much more optimistic on Tuesday: “There are great possibilities that decisive progress can be made in the Luxembourg Council on Thursday. The Council has not been able to reach an agreement for six or seven years. This is the time.” As for the economic contributions to be made, if the immigrants to be resettled are not accepted, a drop-off point has not been found yet, but according to European sources, it should be 20 thousand euros per person. In practice, a threshold should be set for the number of landings, which, if exceeded, will trigger the emergency mechanism. At this point, all extra immigrants arriving in a country like Italy will be transferred to other member states on a pro rata basis. And whoever says no will have to pay.
But the amount corresponding to each country’s admission can be flexible: the Commission can calculate it by taking into account the number of arrivals on EU territory, the population and GDP of each state. In any case, those who do not accept the deportations will have to do their part in another way. “You cannot ask some Member States to relocate and others to do nothing. That would not be a sustainable solution,” Commissioner Johansson underlined. The new regulation also approves the creation of immigration centers and detention facilities at Member States’ borders, in the transit zone, or “near the outer border”. made upon their eventual repatriation.
In this sense, a very clear list of safe countries should be drawn up and the acceptance of asylum applications from these countries should be made almost impossible. “It doesn’t make sense to treat people from Albania, Pakistan or Turkey the same way as those from, for example, Afghanistan, Syria or Sudan,” Johansson said. said. Finally, the new asylum regulation proposes to review the length of time the country of entry of the irregular migrant is responsible for the case, as determined by the infamous Dublin Regulation. Mediterranean countries like Italy want this period to be only one year, while countries like Germany that take more minor action want this period to be increased to three years.
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Source: Today IT
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
