When asked by a journalist in Luxembourg on Tuesday how long the proposals would be delayed, migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner didn’t deny the delay, or seem phased by it. “I’m sure we will be able to find an agreement. And I don’t think it matters whether it’s a couple of days earlier or later; it’s important that it works,” he said.
Brunner acknowledged that the deadline is set out in the law, but said this is “the first time we’re doing this exercise … it’s not that easy, because it’s the first time.”
Ministers are meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday to weigh in for the first time on a series of EU plans to appease growing public discontent over migration. Discussions come ahead of a meeting of the bloc’s 27 leaders at a European Council in Brussels later this month, according to documents seen by POLITICO.
The decision to delay comes amid political chaos in France, and with elections upcoming in the Netherlands — both countries where migration is top of the political agenda.
Under the solidarity system, agreed as part of the EU’s flagship migration pact, EU governments can choose to either accept migrants from those struggling with migration or support them with cash and staff.
But some EU countries are unhappy with Italy and Greece — likely to be designated as recipients of that support — for not keeping their end of the bargain by refusing to handle migration cases as set out by the so-called Dublin rules. These stipulate which country should handle asylum applications, typically the applicant’s country of entry to the EU.
“The success of the asylum and migration pact, where the solidarity cycle is one of the cornerstones, they go hand in hand,” Anneleen Van Bossuyt, Belgium’s migration minister, said Tuesday.
According to the EU’s statistics agency, Italy received 42,807 requests from other EU countries to readmit asylum-seekers or take charge of their applications in 2024, but accepted just 60. Greece received 17,163 requests but accepted only 26.