“Member states can explore whether it’s going to be possible or not, whether we find third countries,” he said. “That’s a question of negotiation, agreements and arrangements.”
Brace for a Parliament fight
Borrowing heavily from the far-right’s playbook, the returns bill is one of the key EU election campaign promises of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the political family of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in an effort to draw voters back from European populist movements.
With the Parliament gearing up to start negotiations, questions linger over whether a centrist coalition comprising the EPP, the Socialists and Democrats and the liberals of the Renew group will survive, given the fundamental gaps among their positions — or whether the EPP will try to have the measure approved with the support of the same far-right parties the Commission is trying to fend off.
“This is not the right way to address the deportation issue, it’s a populist solution that doesn’t respect our values,” Renew Europe chief Valérie Hayer told reporters, echoing a press release by the Socialists that stated they would refuse any text including return hubs — one of the key pillars the EPP wants to see in the regulation.
Right-wing groups, meanwhile, expect the EPP to use the “Venezuela majority” — a coalition of conservatives and far-right parties — to push the bill through, as they have done since the June EU election.
“Obviously, we hope for a center-right majority … [but] now it’s up to the EPP,” Nicola Procaccini, co-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) right-wing group, told reporters on Tuesday while praising Italy’s “return hub” model.
