Migrants, Johansson presents the European “package” on quotas

A duty of solidarity in case of “crisis situations”, with no obligation to relocate, but also a system of “screening” of disembarked migrants that penalizes bordering countries such as Italy. With regard to asylum management responsibilities and discipline of long-term residents. It is the entire package of the Pact on Migration and Asylum on which the European Commission intends to obtain an agreement between the States in the Council of the EU, possibly already tomorrow at the meeting in Luxembourg which will be attended by the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi. The Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, when presenting the new action plan for the Western Mediterranean, was more optimistic than usual, but does not rule out the possibility of the agreement being reached by qualified majority. It would be the first time in the community tradition that migration has always been legislated unanimously.

However, the Mediterranean States5 – Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta – argue that, given that the reform of the European asylum system has a particular impact on the border Member States, the majority logic, although formally applicable to the negotiation , cannot be applied in practice. The most affected states cannot be excluded. Translation: you can go ahead with Hungary or Poland voting against it, but not Spain or Italy. One of the most sticking points concerns the difficult (until now impossible) balance between solidarity and responsibility. Responsibility is required of countries of first arrival, such as Italy (with identification, registration and initial reception), while solidarity must be the task of secondary countries, with the resettlement of newly arrived migrants. “Our proposal does not foresee mandatory relocations, but mandatory solidarity. And this is also the proposal of the current presidency of the Council of the EU”, assumed by Sweden, “and it was also the one of the previous presidency” that fell to the Czech Republic. “We will take the decision in the Council with a qualified majority”, added the commissioner .

“Let’s come to an agreement. We’ll see how it balances out, but it’s absolutely necessary: ​​some countries cannot be asked to move while others do nothing. It would not be a sustainable solution, we need a solidary balance with countries that are under pressure», is the principle. The Commission, which is pressing for the final approval of the text before the European elections in June 2024, according to the proposal confirmed by the Strasbourg plenary, reserves the power to declare a “crisis situation” in the event of an explosion in arrivals (see the crisis Libya, Tunisia, Syria). Under the new system, States will be able to choose how to help the destination countries of flows, committing to the relocation of asylum seekers or guaranteeing other forms of support. One hypothesis is that member states should pay compensation of €22,000 for each migrant whose relocation they refuse. In exceptional situations, mandatory transfers and derogations from screening and asylum procedures would also be allowed.

The package of proposals – already voted on by Parliament in Strasbourg – also includes new criteria for determining the responsibility of EU countries in processing an asylum application (the so-called Dublin criteria) and the fair division of responsibilities. This is what the countries of the North claim as opposed to the solidarity called for by the countries of the South. The new rules, if confirmed, will also strengthen the screening of third-country nationals at EU borders. Persons who do not meet the conditions for entry into a Member State will be subject to identification, fingerprinting, security checks and preliminary health and vulnerability assessment. “In my proposal, everyone has the right to submit an asylum application and have their application evaluated. But if you come from a country with a very low recognition rate, and for example you are not a vulnerable person or an unaccompanied minor, you should already have an expedited procedure at the borders”, emphasized Johansson, because “it doesn’t make sense that people from Albania , Pakistan or Turkey are treated in the same way as people arriving from Afghanistan, Syria and Sudan”.