Governments were also unable to agree on a system of mandatory recognition of asylum decisions taken in other EU countries, Danish Migration Minister Rasmus Stoklund, who’s currently leading discussions, said in Luxembourg. Denmark proposed a change to the Commission’s original draft, but national governments remain “too divided,” he said.
Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for migration, said there is “a lot of cooperation” and desire among countries to reform the system. He added that “time is of the essence” — an unsurprising comment in light of a call last year by EU leaders for “determined action” on deportations and a June deadline looming.
Failure could also come with grave political costs for the EU’s center ground.
A situation where member countries refuse to implement the rules they agreed in the EU’s flagship migration pact would “fundamentally undermine the credibility of the common European asylum system,” said Alberto-Horst Neidhardt, senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre.
“If that happens, as an immediate result, you would have internal border controls reinstated across the Schengen area, you would have systematic pushbacks at the external borders … the systemic implications of this would certainly threaten the Union and … there would be certainly a political spiral because the far right would claim vindication,” Neidhardt said.
That’s a worst-case scenario, but this is a “very different political context” than in 2015, when the EU faced its last migration crisis, he said. “National governments are much more self-interested.”