EU pact on migration and asylum, what was decided and what were the press comments
The 27 EU countries have reached an agreement which lays the foundations for the new EU pact on migration which regulates border procedures and the management of asylum for migrants. Here's what it foresees and how it was received by the Italian press
Shortly before 11pm yesterday evening, during the Internal Affairs Council in Luxembourg, the 27 EU countries reached an agreement to update, after seven years of negotiations, border procedures and asylum management for migrants that make up the new EU pact on migration.
The result was achieved with qualified majority voting: Poland and Hungary against, Malta, Lithuania, Slovakia and Bulgaria abstaining.
Although this is an initial agreement – the Council will in fact have to find a common position with the EU Parliament for definitive approval -, in the words of EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson, it was an "historic decision".
Here is what it foresees and what the comments of the Italian press were.
THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NEW PACT ON MIGRATION
The first agreement on the new EU pact on migration aims to establish a common procedure throughout the EU by streamlining procedural arrangements and establishing standards for the rights of asylum seekers, for example, the service of an interpreter or the right to legal assistance and representation. It also wants to prevent abuses of the system by establishing clear obligations for applicants, who are asked to cooperate with the authorities throughout the procedure.
WHAT THE NEW AGREEMENT FORESEES
The agreement between the 27 envisages that all EU member states participate in the redistribution of migrants or alternatively pay a contribution of 20 thousand euros per migrant to the common fund for the management of external borders, entrusted to the EU Commission for projects "for the external dimension” in third countries and strongly desired by the Meloni government.
Furthermore, annual quotas are foreseen for relocations with a pool of 30,000 places per year – Italy asked for 20,000 – to be shared among all the members.
The examination of asylum applications will have to take place with an "accelerated" border procedure, which will in fact have to be concluded within 12 weeks. It will especially affect those who, coming from a "low acceptance" country – for example a country not at war – will have a greater chance of being repatriated.
The period during which the State of first arrival is responsible for migrants arriving on its territory goes from 12 to 24 months.
Finally, as far as repatriations are concerned, the EU states will have autonomy in defining a country of departure or transit as "safe" and therefore will be able to carry out repatriations even to a state of simple passage. Just the definition of a "safe" third country for the repatriation of migrants not admitted to asylum and the criteria for "connection" with that country, Corriere della sera reports, represented the last obstacle to overcome yesterday evening due to the divergence between Italy and Germany.
THE DISAGREE BETWEEN ITALY AND GERMANY (AND THE POSITIONS OF THE OTHERS)
Italy, in agreement with Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Malta, Austria, Denmark and Greece, explains the newspaper, "asked for the possibility of repatriating migrants whose asylum applications were also rejected in those countries 'safe' through which they passed” while Germany “rejected this idea”.
As reported by Corriere , France was "in tune" with Germany, while Spain and the Netherlands are positioned close to Italy.
The freedom to let each State define whether a third country is "safe" for repatriations is therefore a "victory" for the Meloni government represented yesterday in the Council by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, who in an interview with the newspaper he expressed satisfaction with the agreement reached and explained that the negotiation "was complex" but that in the end it was possible to get "all the countries that had agreed on this to converge".
Another point claimed by the minister is our country's refusal to accept "cash compensation" which, according to Piantedosi, would make Italy a "collection point for the EU". “We preferred to aim for a mechanism that remains a compensation by the countries that do not accept the relocation of migrants but that the related resources go to finance a fund specially set up and managed by the EU Commission to carry out projects of that so-called external dimension which due to for the first time it is materialized in EU acts and on which the Meloni government has always put pressure since it took office in all possible locations”, he said.
THE COURIER'S COMMENT
Corriere della Sera , in the editorial by journalist Fiorenza Sarzanini, deputy director and expert in the sector, approves the agreement found in Luxembourg with full marks. "The right path on migrants", is the title of the article which speaks of a "fundamental result" which "finally represents a change of pace".
Promoted with full marks by Piantedosi who "did the right thing […] to put the essential points for the government on the negotiating table". “The determination not to give in on some aspects – commented Sarzanini – in the end made it possible to obtain a clear result and above all to assign our country a key role in the negotiations. But above all it has aligned Italy with that part of the Union that does not see migrants as a threat and instead works to transform those who have the requisites to arrive and stay in the old continent into a resource”.
THE COMMENT OF REPUBLIC
in sharp disagreement with the Republic which, indeed, speaks of an "agreement without substance". But he gets even heavier when he writes that "despite the hard face and fists metaphorically slammed on the table, in the end the Meloni government comes out with broken bones from the last negotiation on the new Pact for Asylum and Migrants".
“In fact, our country – we read – has not achieved anything that concerns the core of the migrant emergency. The concept of 'compulsory solidarity', in fact, has nothing to do with an active participation of the allies in the redistribution of migrants. Indeed, the concept of voluntariness remains linked to the possibility of paying 20,000 euros for each migrant rejected on the basis of the annual definition of the quota of non-EU citizens to be relocated".
Regarding the issue on which the government believes it has prevailed, the newspaper states that Rome has obtained "a more flexible rule on 'Third Countries' to which to send back illegal migrants who have started their departure precisely from those areas" but which in any case "it is a very complicated procedure to implement which will require the definition of agreements and which requires the identification of a real 'connection' between that country and the migrant". "A very complicated mechanism", is the final criticism.
THE COMMENT FROM THE PRESS AND FROM FUTURE
For La Stampa it is "a reform that introduces elements of solidarity to help countries of first arrival […] but also more constraints to ensure that states such as Italy assume their responsibilities in managing arrivals, following an accelerated procedure for the examination of asylum applications".
However, comments the Turin newspaper, "the final compromise will allow individual Member States to have full autonomy in defining a country as safe and also in establishing any 'connections', which will be very mild (basically it will be enough to have passed through a specific country to be deported there)." Which is what, according to Avvenire , “Italy aims to do with Tunisia“.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/patto-ue-su-migrazione-e-asilo-cosa-si-e-deciso-e-quali-sono-stati-i-commenti-della-stampa/ on Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:51:41 +0000.