Brussels – The cumbersome solidarity mechanism between EU countries under the Migration and Asylum Pact is taking shape. With no little difficulty (and delay), the European Commission presented today (11 November) the first annual report that establishes the level of migratory pressure on the member states and who among the 27 will be able to request help from the other capitals. Italy, Spain, Greece, and Cyprus are the four that will be able to activate the mechanism. Another 12 countries are considered to be at risk, and six will be able to request exemptions.
Based on the report, the Commission proposed contribution modalities to meet the needs of countries under pressure. The mechanism basically provides three options, calculated based on each member state’s GDP and population: migrant relocations, financial contributions, or support to third countries. The proposal, however, is not public. It will only be once the member states themselves have adopted it in the EU Council.
Although the report puts it in black and white that irregular entries into the EU have decreased by 35 per cent in one year, the problem is that, as the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, had to admit, “all Member States are under pressure in various forms.” Or they want to be seen as such. And so, in addition to the four that have experienced “a disproportionate level of arrivals” over the past year, there are the 12 at risk “due to the high number of arrivals, the continuing tensions over their reception systems, or the threat of instrumentalisation of migration that could create disproportionate obligations in the coming year.” They are Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, France, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, and Finland: these will have priority access to another support tool, the Migration Support Toolbox, which includes financial, operational, and technical support from EU bodies, offices, and agencies.
Magnus Brunner, Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration [photo: Christophe Licoppe/imagoeconomica]
While eight of them will in any case be asked to contribute, at least symbolically, to the mechanism—pending an “accelerated reassessment” of their situation—Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, and Poland could be exempted, partially or completely. These, along with Austria and the Czech Republic, “face a significant migration situation due to the cumulative pressures of the past five years” and will therefore have the possibility to ask the Council for a “full or partial deduction from their contributions to the Solidarity Fund for next year.”
On balance, bearing in mind that Denmark enjoys a long-standing opt-out from obligations on migration and asylum, only seven countries remain: Malta, Sweden, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and Luxembourg. The European Commission made it clear that, in order to preserve the balance between solidarity and responsibility, the Pact ensures that Member States contributing to the solidarity mechanism “will not be required to implement their solidarity commitments vis-à-vis a Member State under pressure from migration if the Commission has identified systemic failures in that Member State with regard to the new responsibility rules.” In essence, if Italy, Spain, Greece, and Cyprus continue to let migrants leave for northern Europe, in defiance of Dublin rules, everything will collapse.
Brunner, perhaps aware of the risks that the mechanism will jam—on several fronts—admitted in a brief press conference that “it is not perfect, but it is what we have and it is really important to implement it.” A hot potato that now passes into the hands of the Council of the European Union, where the member states will have to agree on the size of the solidarity mechanism and how each state should contribute.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
