Welcoming migrants or paying: what the European settlement supplies | EUROtoday

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FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
BRUSSELS – Just six months earlier than the subsequent European elections, Parliament and Council have discovered an settlement with which to deal with the phenomenon of mass immigration, which is extraordinarily delicate from a social and political standpoint. Celebrated by some and criticized by others, the settlement introduces new types of solidarity between member international locations to be utilized when the European Union is grappling with migratory emergencies related to those who have marked the final decade.

Welcoming migrants or paying

The package deal of 5 rules – which can now should be definitively accepted one after the other by Parliament and the Council – consists of stricter controls on the arrival of migrants in EU territory; reception facilities near the exterior borders of the Union to rapidly repatriate those that usually are not entitled to asylum; and a compulsory solidarity mechanism between member states – international locations will be capable to select whether or not to welcome migrants or assure funding.

The package deal comes after the 2015-2016 migration disaster which put European guidelines to the take a look at. Then it was determined to introduce the precept of relocating refugees with the intention to assist the international locations of first entry. The settlement was adhered to love a leopard, with some international locations clearly towards it. In 2020, the European Commission put an alternate reform on the desk, the topic of a painful settlement between Parliament and the Council (see Il Sole/24 Ore of 23 September 2020).

Controversial settlement

In this context, the duty of solidarity, even when solely monetary, is probably the most revolutionary facet, and displays the try and keep in mind the place of the international locations most reluctant to just accept new migrants. Nonetheless, the settlement was rejected “in the harshest terms” by Hungary, which doesn’t wish to hear speak of both human or financial solidarity (it must be famous that the measure should be accepted by the Council by majority vote). However, the reactions of Germany, France and Italy, in addition to the UNHCR, have been constructive.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola mentioned she was “very proud” of the settlement. “Let us not underestimate the risk we would have taken if we had not reached this agreement,” she mentioned. “It must be hoped that member states will feel less inclined to reintroduce internal controls because the influx is at this point managed at the external borders.” You then added that the settlement presents a solution in an space that after once more dangers monopolizing the subsequent electoral marketing campaign.