The leaders of the 27 EU member states are meeting today in Granadain southern Spain, at an informal summit expected to be dominated by immigration, two days after they reached an agreement on reforming European immigration policy.
The nationalist government of Poland, ten days before the parliamentary elections, repeated yesterday, Thursday, that it disagrees with this text, referring to “dictations from Brussels and Berlin”.
The issue of immigration, one of the thorniest among the 27, was on the agenda of the informal meeting after the massive influx of migrants to the small Italian island of Lampedusa.
The specific package of regulations aims to jointly organize the response in cases of a mass flow of migrants in a country of the European Union, such as during the crisis of the period 2015-2016, which allows, among other things, the extension of the detention period of migrants at the external borders of the Union. It also provides for an exemption regime in asylum procedures, which will provide less protection to migrants.
This text is a compromise solution in order to remove Germany’s reservations initially and then Italy’s.
Meloni satisfied
These reforms, which will be the subject of negotiations in the European Parliament, were approved by an enhanced majority. Poland and Hungary voted against, while Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic abstained.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her satisfaction. “Europe’s perception and ambitions regarding immigration are in the process of evolving towards a more realistic line of legality, a desire to deal with traffickers, to stop illegal immigration,” he estimated yesterday, Thursday.
Meloni is due to speak on the sidelines of today’s summit with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, after expressing her surprise at Berlin’s financial support for organizations rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.
For his part, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has declared that he will “veto” this reform, as Warsaw opposes any agreement that provides for the relocation of immigrants.
The disagreements between Hungary and Poland could lead to the failure of efforts to issue a joint statement on immigration after today’s session. This had already happened at the summit in late June-early July, when the two countries blocked the adoption of the conclusion text on migration in order to express their opposition to asylum reform and the mandatory solidarity mechanism.
However, the language of the immigration text under discussion today may be hardened. The draft, seen by AFP, underlines the need to tackle illegal immigration “immediately and decisively” and to “step up deportations” of irregular migrants.
It also stresses the EU’s determination to conclude “mutually beneficial comprehensive agreements with countries of origin and transit”, such as the one signed in July with Tunisia.
Another topic on the agenda of today’s session is the enlargement of the EU and the different views on how the bloc can be functional if other countries join it. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have applied for membership, bringing the number of countries wishing to join the Union to 10.
The 27 leaders are also to discuss the bloc’s strategic priorities for the coming years, including its defense capabilities, energy security, joint response to the climate crisis and economic independence.
Source: News Beast
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