Migration is a European challenge that requires a European response (joint in Hungary), the Heads of State and Government accredited on Thursday stressed Conclusions. The European Council – after dealing with Ukraine – emphasizes the importance of implementing the European Union legislation adopted so far in order to deal with the current challenges in the best possible way (after the Dutch and Hungarian governments requested exceptions to it). The sentence is also surprising because it was not included in a draft previously leaked by Politico Published on Tuesday.
Legal immigration routes are still considered key, but compared to Tuesday's text, they add: National authorities must be respected. I will continue to increase cooperation with migration transit and source countries outside the European Union. (This is also one of the priority goals of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of Ministers).
They will speed up the return of rejected asylum seekers, but this part has become more extensive compared to Tuesday, and now they will use almost everything they can for this purpose. Instead of a general call, it turned into a specific request for the European Commission to submit a new proposal to replace the outstanding element of the migration and asylum package, the Returns Directive, which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had already promised was among the proposals sent. Before the summit.
The part devoted to protecting the EU's external borders has also been significantly increased compared to Tuesday's text, which was originally placed in square brackets (i.e. not finalized). They emphasized the short sentence that neither Russia, Belarus nor any other country can undermine EU democracy and abuse the right to asylum. They stand in solidarity with countries that find themselves in such a situation, take action against the use of migrants as an instrument for political purposes, and “appropriate measures are needed in exceptional situations.” (Recently Polish government I hung it (Temporary asylum on the grounds that the Belarusian leadership is using asylum seekers to wage hybrid warfare.)
New ways to prevent and prevent illegal migration remain to be considered in line with EU and international law. On the other hand, compared to the version leaked on Tuesday, a new paragraph has been added to remind of the importance of the Schengen Area according to the recently changed rules. (Many member states circumvent the rules – Austria once Officially too By violating the regulations – practically since 2015, it has extended “temporary” internal border controls every six months. Last year, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg bluntly stated that “the Schengen Agreement is no longer valid.” The Schengen Code was recently adopted review It will try to deal with this, but a few weeks ago, after the stabbing incident in Solingen, the German government expanded and tightened controls at its internal borders in the Schengen Area.
As we wrote before the summit, migration has already become perhaps the most important topic of the meeting. Before the beginning of Thursday, the hardliners met separately in a narrower circle in the European Council hall of the Italian delegation, the newspaper wrote. France24. Among others, Viktor Orban and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, were invited here.
Charles Michel, President of the European Council, also attended the closing press conference for the day He confirmedHow deep they are in the discussion. Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, which proposes EU legislation, confirmed that she would present new draft guidelines for returns soon. He pointed out that only one-fifth of rejected asylum seekers are now deported. According to him, it is important to implement the asylum and migration package that was adopted this year, but most of the talk was about the external dimension of migration. He announced that irregular migration on the Central Mediterranean route to Italy has fallen to a third and to a quarter in the Western Balkans, which also affects Hungary, but they will also work on the return of those who are already on their way to Africa. He expressed his belief that what happened to Poland, and before that to Finland and the Baltic states, was a special case, because they were dealing with Russian-Belarusian state-backed hybrid attacks, and should be able to defend themselves against that with temporary means. Sizes. The only thing he said about his proposal for return centers – which sounds very similar to the outposts Orban spoke about last week – is that they were discussed in the “context” of those with rejected applications. (In Hungarian, he could have implied that requests would not be judged here, as the Italians do in the Albanian camps and what the Hungarian Prime Minister also wants, but he expressed this rather vaguely.)
The summit was supposed to continue on Friday with the remaining topics, but at the end of the first day, practically everything was planned Conclusions. This is in addition to the section on immigration and Ukraine
- According to them, Syrians, who constitute a large part of the refugees arriving in the European Union, must create conditions for a “safe, voluntary and dignified” return to their homes;
- It is said about Lebanon, which is under Israeli attack, that its sovereignty must be respected, but Hezbollah should not fire missiles at Israel from there either;
- They asked everyone to allow the United Nations mission in Lebanon, which includes Hungarian soldiers, to work and not to shoot at them (this is what happened with the Israeli forces several times);
- We are concerned about Russian interference in the democratic process in Moldova, where a referendum on EU membership is scheduled to be held this weekend;
- They warn the Georgian government that what it is doing practically means stopping its accession process to the European Union.
- They call on all EU institutions to work on increasing the EU's competitiveness (this is one of the priority objectives of the Hungarian Council Presidency) and state that they will deal with this matter at the informal summit to be held in November in Budapest;
- They agreed on this year's country-specific recommendations, issued annually, so they could accept them (Orbán may have referred to this as one of his three big battles, which he appears to have left last after his ministers had already given the nod twice anyway).
