Ministers set deadline for migration strategy

Commission to draw up plans before 12 May, as thousands of migrants arrive in Italy and Malta.

Member states’ interior ministers have set a deadline of next month for the European Commission to come up with plans to stem migration from north Africa. 

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The ministers are to hold an extra meeting on 12 May and want the proposals for a ‘partnership for migration and mobility’ with the new democracies of north Africa to be ready by then. They are scheduled for adoption by the member states on 9 June and EU leaders are expected to give their political backing to the new strategy for north Africa at a summit on 24 June. The ministers also hope in June to discuss Commission proposals for new, EU-wide rules for processing asylum applications and assisting asylum-seekers (see right).

Next Wednesday (20 April), the college of European commissioners will hold an orientation debate on migration. On 10 May, the commissioners are scheduled to propose revisions to its policy towards the neighbourhood (the ten countries to the south of the Union and six to the east). The revisions are being drafted by Štefan Füle, the European commissioner for enlargement and the neighbourhood, and Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief. At their meeting on Monday (10 April), the ministers asked the Commission to identify additional funding that would help north Africa’s new democracies deter illegal migration to the EU.

Additional funding

On a visit to Tunisia on Tuesday (12 April), José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, announced that the EU would provide the country with up to €140 million in additional funding over the next three years in return for better co-operation on migration. The funding would complement €257m already budgeted to support reform and economic growth, and is supposed to help Tunisia build up its judicial, border management and asylum systems.

Frontex, the EU’s border management agency, is seeking an agreement with Tunisia that would allow joint patrols and repatriations of Tunisians, managed by Frontex.

The arrival in Italy and Malta of thousands of migrants has injected urgency into plans by the EU to assist Tunisia and other north African countries, but it has also exposed deep rifts among the member states. Roberto Maroni, Italy’s interior minister, clashed with his counterparts at Monday’s meeting in Luxembourg. Maroni accused other member states of failing to share the burden as his country struggles with more than 20,000 migrants – most of them from Tunisia – who have landed on the Italian outpost of Lampedusa. Referring to a statement adopted at the meeting, Maroni said: “If this is the answer, it is better to be alone than in bad company. I wonder if it makes sense to stay in the European Union.”

Italy angered other member states with a decision last week (7 April) to grant temporary residence permits to Tunisian migrants. Austria, Belgium, France and Germany all announced that they would re-introduce checks at their border if Italy proceeded with issuing permits.

Fact File

Common European Asylum system

Disagreements persist between member states, the European Commission and MEPs over several Commission proposals to strengthen EU-wide rules on asylum. National interior ministers on Monday (11 April) adopted the least controversial of the six proposals that make up the EU’s asylum package, to extend the application of an existing long-term residents’ directive to persons who have received international protection in the EU.

Other measures in the EU’s asylum legislation are no closer to agreement, however, including revisions to the controversial Dublin II regulation, which allows member states to return asylum-seekers to the country through which they entered the EU. The Commission is expected to present revised draft proposals on reception conditions and on asylum procedures in June.

A demand by Malta to activate a mechanism for EU-wide temporary protection for some 1,000 migrants – mainly Eritreans and Somalis from Libya – arriving in Malta over the past couple of weeks also found no backing among the ministers.