Plenary agreed on Thursday to open talks with EU member states on several migration and asylum policy files.
MEPs approved entering into interinstitutional negotiations on all the files on which they voted.
Screening of third-country nationals
The decision to start negotiations on this new regulation was confirmed with 419 votes in favour, 126 against and 30 abstentions. For the centralised system on conviction information (ECRIS-TCN) negotiations, the result was 431 votes in favour 121 against and 25 abstentions.
These rules will apply at EU borders to persons who do not in principle fulfil the entry conditions of an EU member state. They include identification, fingerprinting, security checks, and preliminary health and vulnerability assessment. In their amendments, MEPs added an independent fundamental rights monitoring mechanism which would also verify border surveillance, in order to make sure that possible pushbacks are reported and investigated.
Asylum and migration management
The negotiating mandate for the central piece of legislation of the Asylum and Migration Package, on asylum and migration management, was backed by MEPs with 413 votes in favour 142 against and 20 abstentions.
The regulation sets out how the EU and its member states will act jointly to manage asylum and migration. It establishes improved criteria to determine the responsibility of member states in processing an asylum application (the so-called ‘Dublin’ criteria) and fair sharing of responsibility. It includes a binding solidarity mechanism to assist countries experiencing migratory pressure, including following search and rescue operations at sea.
Crisis situation
The decision to start negotiations for the crisis situations regulation was confirmed with 419, votes in favour 129 against and 30 abstentions.
The text focuses on sudden mass arrivals of third country nationals leading to a crisis situation in a particular member state that would, based on a Commission assessment, include mandatory relocations and derogations of screening and asylum procedures.
Long-term resident directive
By 391 to 140 and 25 abstentions, MEPs endorsed a negotiating mandate for proposed changes to the current long-term resident directive. These include acceleration of the granting of EU long-term permits after 3 years of legal residence and the possibility to integrate persons enjoying temporary protection status. EU long-term residents would be able to move to another EU country without additional work restrictions and their dependent children would automatically be granted the same status.
Next steps
Following plenary’s green light, MEPs may open talks on the final form of these legislative texts with the Council on those files for which the member states have already agreed on their own position, notably the screening procedures.
Background
Parliament and the rotating Council Presidencies have committed to work together to adopt the reform of the EU migration and asylum rules before the 2024 EU elections.
Source – EU Parliament
Patryk Jaki: EP’s amendments to migration pact will make negotiations with Council very difficult
Brussels, 20 April 2023
“The European Parliament’s amendments to the migration pact will make it much harder for Member States to effectively fight illegal migration to the EU”, said ECR Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Coordinator Patryk Jaki. The Conservative ECR Group had considered the Commission’s initial text a good working basis. However, “what the Parliament has proposed are not solutions. This is never-never land”, said Jaki.
The European Conservatives and Reformists Group had called for a vote in Parliament on the mandates of each of the five files in question with the Council in order to highlight the need for a more realistic approach for the negotiations ahead.
Jaki said: “Much more respect should have been shown for the rules of the Treaty and the competences of the Member States and, secondly, our primary task is to ensure the security of our citizens: Europeans.”
With the proposed changes, the Parliament wants to give the Commission even more decision-making power than the Commission had proposed and wants to leave it up to the Commission to decide when to use the emergency mechanism (force majeur), leaving Member States out in the cold. The European Parliament also wants to focus almost exclusively on the resettlement of migrants, removing the sponsorship of return as an expression of solidarity. It has widened the scope of various assessments (e.g. health, vulnerability), while reducing restrictive measures and making it harder to remove people who have no prospect of remaining. According to the European Parliament, the possibility for Member States to attach conditions to the residence status should be limited. The European Parliament also wants to remove almost all integration conditions for family reunification.
Furthermore, the ECR Group believes that more asylum applications must be made from outside EU Member State borders. Unfortunately, the changed text only provides for the promotion of these types of partnerships with third countries on a residual basis.
Source – ECR Group – Email
S&Ds: The Migration Pact is about solutions, talking about building walls is a distraction
Strasbourg, 20 April 2023
Today, the European Parliament voted on key files in the Migration Pact. This comes after the far right political groups objected to the mandates voted by the justice and home affairs committee at the end of March.
At the committee vote, there was a clear majority to start negotiations with the Council as soon as possible, with a view to finding an agreement before the end of the mandate in 2024. The plenary voted on challenging the committee decision to start trilogue negotiations on the screening regulation, the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation and the crisis regulation.
With an influential role across the legislative files, the S&D Group fought for an agreement based on solidarity both towards those seeking protection and between member states; one that protects the right to asylum and that ensures each member state takes its fair share of responsibility.
Instead of celebrating their support for proposals like protecting the right to asylum, the EPP Group is copying from the far right playbook by turning migration into a debate about building walls.
Birgit Sippel, LIBE spokesperson and Parliament’s rapporteur on screening, said:
“The Migration Pact is about solutions, while talking about building walls is a distraction. Today’s vote is about serious legislation that will mean long-term solutions and binding solidarity measures. The vote orchestrated by the EPP yesterday, to use EU money to build walls, was a distraction.
“The EPP is at real risk of losing control of its policies and is running blind into an alliance with the far right. By constantly pandering to far-right fearmongering over migration, Manfred Weber is playing a dangerous game. Weber should get himself out of the pockets of the likes of Meloni and get back to responsible solutions that have the support of a pro-European majority.”
Juan Fernando López Aguilar, LIBE Chair and Parliament’s rapporteur on the crisis regulation, said:
“We worked hard to find a solid majority among the political groups at the committee stage and we did that again today. By challenging the committee’s mandate, the Conservatives and Reformists, that includes the ruling party of the Italian government, show they are not serious about solutions.
“The Migration Pact includes the tools to move away from ad-hoc crisis responses and instead put in place a permanent and sustainable procedure that governments can rely on. The Pact creates a system in which solidarity is obligatory and means relocation after rescue and salvage operations. Populist emergency decrees are no way to deal with migration in an orderly way. Nationalist solutions are not the answer to pan-European challenges.”
Source – S&D Group – Email