MEPs take part in a series of votes as they attend a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, Wednesday April 10, 2024.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
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Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
MEPs take part in a series of votes as they attend a plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels, Wednesday April 10, 2024.
Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
BRUSSELS — European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved a major overhaul of the bloc’s immigration laws, hoping to end years of division over how to handle the entry of thousands of people without authorization and deprive the far right of a vote-winning campaign issue before the June elections. .
In a series of 10 votes, members of the European Parliament approved the regulations and policies that make up the Pact on Migration and Asylum. The reforms address the thorny question of who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other EU countries should be obliged to help them.
The proceedings were briefly interrupted by a small, noisy group of demonstrators in the public gallery who wore shirts marked “this pact kills” and shouted “vote no!”
The 27 EU member countries must now approve the reform package, possibly in a vote at the end of April, before it can come into force.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, a former chief lawmaker on migration who helped pave the way for the reform package, posted “History made” on X, formerly Twitter, after the votes.
“It took more than ten years. But we kept our word. A balance between solidarity and responsibility. This is the European way,” she wrote.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the result a “major and very important success.”
“After years of difficult negotiations, we have reached an agreement on this comprehensive package. We have thus overcome a deep division in Europe,” Faeser, whose country is a favored destination for people seeking refuge, said in a statement written.
“We continue to protect people fleeing terrible wars, terror, torture and killings. But this responsibility for refugees will be spread across more shoulders in the future,” she added. .
The plan was drawn up after 1.3 million people, mostly fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, sought refuge in Europe in 2015. The EU’s asylum system collapsed, with centers Reception centers were overwhelmed in Greece and Italy and countries further north built barriers to stop the refugees. incoming.
But few have admitted to being satisfied with the new policy response to one of Europe’s biggest political crises, and even lawmakers who drafted parts of the new regulations are unwilling to support the entire package of reforms.
“I’m not going to open a bottle of champagne after this,” Dutch MP Sophie i’nt Veld, who developed the Assembly’s position on reception conditions for migrants, told the press on the eve of the plenary session in Brussels.
Swedish parliamentarian Malin Bjork, who has worked on refugee resettlement, said the deal does not answer “any of the questions it is supposed to solve.”
She said the reform package “undermines the individual right to seek asylum” in Europe because it would build on plans already in place in some EU countries to process migrants abroad. Italy has concluded such an agreement with Albania. Björk’s left-wing group voted against the pact.
The new rules include controversial measures: facial images and fingerprints could be taken of children as young as 6, and people could be detained during the check. Expedited eviction could be used for those who are not allowed to stay.
On the other side of the picture, countries may be obliged to help their EU partners by offering to house those eligible for asylum or, alternatively, to pay the costs of their accommodation elsewhere.
Migrant and human rights groups have mostly criticized the reform program.
In a joint statement, 22 charity groups, including the International Rescue Committee and Oxfam, said the deal “leaves worrying fissures within the EU’s approach to asylum and migration, and fails to offering sustainable solutions to people seeking security at Europe’s borders.
They noted, however, that some of the reforms governing the resettlement of migrants to Europe from countries outside the bloc “offer a glimmer of hope for many refugees across the world.”
Amnesty International’s Eve Geddie described it as “a failure to demonstrate global leadership”.
“For people fleeing conflict, persecution or economic insecurity, these reforms will mean less protection and a greater risk of facing human rights violations across Europe, including illegal pushbacks and violent, arbitrary detentions and discriminatory police practices,” she said.
Mainstream political parties wanted to reach agreement on the deal before the June 6-9 European elections. Migration is likely to be a campaign theme, and they believe the reforms address concerns about an issue that has regularly won votes for far-right parties.
In an article on X, Beata Szydlo, a member of the Polish nationalist Law and Justice party and former prime minister, criticized the deal on Wednesday. “The EU’s migration policy is wrong and needs to be changed. But you cannot put out the fire by adding oil,” she said.
The outcry over migrants in Europe is largely focused on the small minority of people who board unseaworthy boats or cross European borders on foot. Millions of people enter legally every year. Less than 10% live in Europe illegally and the majority entered with permission but refused to leave when their visa expired.
The main question, once the regulations have been fully approved, is whether member countries will ever fully implement them and whether the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, will enforce the rules as it has chose not to do so to avoid exacerbating political tensions. crisis of recent years.
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