In the absence of an agreement in Council on the Crisis Regulation proposal, interinstitutional talks on Eurodac and Screening regulations are put on hold today by the European Parliament.
On Wednesday 20 September, the Members of the European Parliament’s Asylum Contact Group met with representatives of the Spanish Presidency and of the four Presidencies who signed up the 2022 Joint Roadmap to assess the progress made on the EU migration and asylum reform.
After the meeting, the Asylum Contact Group Chair Elena Yoncheva (S&D, BG), made the following statement:
“While negotiations on the majority of the legislative proposals in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum advance at a steady pace, we have learned with regret that the efforts of the Presidency to reach a Council negotiating mandate on the Crisis Regulation are stalled.
The Parliament has repeatedly stressed its commitment to a comprehensive reform of European Union’s asylum and migration policy. However, this is only possible if all aspects of this reform are addressed, including with regards to solidarity and fair share of responsibility between EU member states. It is on this basis that Parliament adopted with a strong majority its negotiating mandates on the legislative proposals of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum in April 2023.
The Crisis Regulation is an essential element of this reform, as it lays down a predictable EU mechanism to support member states facing sudden crisis situations in the field of migration and asylum. Few months away from the end of the current legislature every day counts. As long as the Council does not agree its negotiating position we are unable to start a dialogue between the institutions in view of reaching a compromise agreement.
It is therefore with great regret that we informed today the rotating Presidencies about our decision to pause negotiations with the Council on the Eurodac and Screening Regulations in the absence of a Council mandate on Crisis Regulation. Over the last few months, the European Parliament has indicated on several occasions to the Council that it stands ready to react to a lack of progress on legislative proposals related to solidarity.
It is not a decision that we have taken lightly, but it is a necessary one. The files of the Pact are interlinked and making progress on some proposals rather than others risks leading to a bottleneck in the negotiations, jeopardising the very fine balance that ensured a wide support for the reform in Parliament.
We recognise the efforts made by the Spanish Presidency in the last months, and trust that member states are fully aware of the urgency and will intensify their efforts over the next few weeks to establish their negotiating position. We remain determined to work intensively with the Council to finalise negotiations on the Pact by spring next year.”
Background
As agreed in the joint roadmap in September 2022, the adoption of a new legislative framework for migration and asylum represent a top priority in the work of the European Parliament with a view to adopting the legislative proposals before the June 2024 European elections. Parliament adopted mandates on key proposals, including on Crisis regulation by rapporteur Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, ES), in April 2023.
The Asylum Contact Group is composed by the rapporteurs of all the Asylum and Migration pact legislative proposals. It is a working group within the Civil Liberties Committee providing a forum for regular exchanges on issues of common interest, including the progress of negotiations, as well as for identifying horizontal issues, where further analytical work and coordination might be necessary.
Source – EU Parliament