MEPS HAVE BEEN urged to adopt all the texts relating to the Migration and Asylum Pact tomorrow despite some of the lead negotiators of the law acknowledging outstanding flaws in the new laws.
Tomorrow, 705 MEPs will decide whether or not to adopt eight texts that make up the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, which plans to unify and standardise asylum laws to manage an influx of asylum seekers over the coming years.
Speaking ahead of the votes, some of the lead negotiators, or rapporteurs, of the eight texts today said it is unknown what might happen if one or more procedures are not adopted and that they’ve been told all eight must be accepted for the pact to work.
The eight texts which make up the Migration and Asylum pact cover: changes to the existing asylum procedure regulations, asylum qualification regulations, reception conditions directives, asylum management regulations, broader screening regulations, crisis management regulations and reforms to European judicial processes in asylum and resettlement frameworks.
All eight texts must be adopted in order for the Pact to be accepted as a whole, according to the rapporteurs today. MEPs were urged today to not “continue the status quo”.
There are some outstanding concerns held by the rapporteur MEPs, particularly by the Netherlands’ Sophie in ‘t Veld who told reporters today that she previously chose to abstain from votes on some of the texts up to this point over concerns on the wordings.
In ‘t Veld, who was in charge of negotiating the reforms and changes to regulations on reception conditions, said the Pact was “not perfect”.
She said she and her colleagues are worried over the potential issues which could be implemented with measures to cut down so-called ‘secondary movements’ or proposals to send people seeking asylum to another country.
Secondary movements are when people seek international protection in a country different to the one in which they first arrived.
Sweden’s Malin Bjork was among those who still have concerns with some of the mitigating measures included in the Pact, including the clause which allows countries to send people seeking asylum elsewhere.
“This package undermines the individual right to seek asylum. If we have the ‘safe third country’ concept, then, in the end, your asylum application will not even be examined in substance because your demand will be deemed ineligible,” Bjork said.
Despite highlighting her issues with the texts, In ‘t Veld said that after three years and nearly a whole Parliament term, the MEPs should instead focus on implementing the current version of the text.
In ‘t Veld added: “If we’re not going to adopt this package – and I’m saying this to some people who are voting against it, for reasons which I understand - it is a complete illusion to think that there’s going to be a new proposal any time soon.
“This is the third attempt, this is the bare minimum. I don’t think anybody is going to be keen to reopen it in the years to come.”
Slovenia’s Matjaz Nemec, who negotiated the changes to regulations on the qualification requirements for asylum, echoed these calls to focus on implementing the Pact and said that the future term, to be elected in June, can work on the outstanding reforms.
In ‘t Veld added that the lack of references to ‘legal labour migration’ – the granting of work permits instead of visas – is a major shortfall of the current Pact. She said she hoped the next Commission and Parliament would introduce such measures.
Asked what would happen if one or more of the texts are not adopted at the vote tomorrow, Swedish MEP Tomas Tobé said the amendments have had strong support at committee level.
“Of course, no one can know what will be the outcome of the vote,” Tobé, the politician in charge of asylum management reforms, said.
He added: “The approach we have taken from the European Parliament is the package approach and if it we come to a situations where it looks like a crucial part of this pact is not going to be adopted by the Parliament, then we will need to have a conversation between the political groups.”
Tobé said he expects that all eight texts will pass, as the largest parliamentary groups – The European People’s Party (which Fine Gael is a member of), the Socialists and Democrats and the Renew Group (which includes Fianna Fáil) – have said they will support the measures.
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This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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