sIf there is no agreement on better registration and distribution of asylum seekers in Europe by the summer, interior ministers see freedom of movement in the Schengen area at risk. Timeframe for an overhaul of The Common European Asylum System (CEAS) Federal Interior Minister Nancy Visser (SPD) said on Friday in Berlin after a meeting with interior ministers and state secretaries from five other EU countries that their summer lockdown would be over.
Until then, EU member states will have to agree so that there is still time for negotiations with Parliament. And she warned that if the agreement does not succeed, „the Schengen area with open internal borders will be in great danger.” Everyone in the European Parliament and the Council should be aware of this.
Sweden’s state secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, Anders Hall, said Sweden also sees this risk, „but no one wants to go that far”. Sweden currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union and will hand over the baton to Spain on July 1.
Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska stressed that internal border controls should remain the exception. For Spain, freedom of movement in the Schengen area is an important pillar of the European Union.
The time pressure has been created by the upcoming European elections in the spring of 2024. „We have to make sure that we also reduce illegal immigration,” said Visser, who also invited representatives from Italy, France and Belgium to the meeting. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Pentedosi participated via video conference. „It is about a comprehensive system of responsibility on the one hand and solidarity on the other,” Weser stressed.
In concrete terms, it is about ensuring that asylum seekers are reliably registered in the EU countries they reach first. Ideally, you should also look there in the future to see if someone has a chance of being recognized as a refugee. However, countries with external borders of the European Union such as Italy or Malta were not yet ready to do so. They insist that the distribution of asylum seekers within Europe must first be better regulated.
Italy has been blocking returns for weeks
To date, only a handful of countries have voluntarily accepted a small number of asylum seekers – Germany in particular. Germany has taken in more than 427 people from Italy and 93 asylum seekers from Cyprus through the Solidarity Mechanism, Visser said, and there are plans for more acquisitions. Italy has been blocking returns of asylum seekers registered in Italy for several weeks, citing alleged technical problems.
Swedish Foreign Minister Hall said he was convinced the agreement would require very difficult compromises from all EU countries. „It will probably be a solution in which no one is happy with everything, but where everyone is at least equally dissatisfied with a common solution,” he added.
Last year, one million asylum applications were submitted in EU countries, more than in 2016. In addition, there were nearly four million people from Ukraine who do not have to apply for asylum in the EU, but who still need housing. and care.
Weser said that effective control of the EU’s external borders is important. At the same time, she emphasized: „It is not about our policy of isolation.”
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