EU countries approve the reform of the migration pact

It has taken almost a week since the EU Interior Ministers met to give the final approval, but there is already the green light. The European countries have reached an agreement to approve the last obstacle that remained to close the Migration and Asylum Pact, and thus they will be able to begin negotiations with the European Parliament.

Last week at a meeting of ministers, after Germany lifted its veto and when Spain had announced an agreement in principle, everything pointed to a clear path for negotiations. But Italy blocked at the last moment the so-called crisis management regulation, the last remaining point.

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Beatriz Navarro

Rome was uncomfortable with a point in the text that ensured that NGOs that rescue migrants cannot be accused of “instrumentalizing” immigration when there is no objective of destabilizing the EU or a member state,” a concession that the presidency had given. Spanish to convince Berlin. The movement did not please Rome, the Meloni government and the political impact that this issue could have in the midst of a major crisis due to the arrivals of migrants in the last year made it difficult to approve it so quickly and asked for more time.

Even so, both the Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johanson, and the Spanish Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who represented the rotating presidency of the Council, in the hands of Spain, were convinced that the measure would end up being approved before the summit. of Granada, which is celebrated at the end of this week, and in which migration will be one of the hot topics. Especially, agreements with third countries such as the one reached last summer with Tunisia.

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Beatriz Navarro

With this regulation, which in the end has had the endorsement of Italy - (several diplomatic sources pointed out that an agreement could not be had without the country most affected by the arrival of migrants) -, questions are closed about how to act in case of a large arrival of people. On how to act with asylum applications (for example, registrations may not last more than four weeks); They also supported that there be no mandatory quotas, but that countries will be free to host asylum seekers or contribute to the payment of their maintenance in another country, or to send experts to accelerate asylum registrations, or to support the return of migrants, in case they do not have the right to asylum.

For Grande-Marlaska, with the agreement reached we are now “in a better position to close the migration and asylum pact with the European Parliament by the end of this semester,” he said in a statement. Also the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, believes that with the step taken the pact between the institutions can be closed before the European elections.

The institutions have given themselves leeway no later than January 2024 to be able to reach an agreement on the entire migration and asylum pact. In any case, the negotiations will not be easy, the European Parliament has requested that there be mandatory quotas in the event of a migration crisis.