Their appeal takes on added significance after the EU overhauled its migration rules on Monday, which made Denmark’s tough approach to migration a standard for the bloc. Establishment political groups across Europe are struggling to deal with the rise of anti-migration parties, which have used the issue as electoral rocket fuel in recent years.
Europe’s justice and home affairs ministers signed off on new policies that let EU countries deport unsuccessful asylum applicants, establish offshore processing centers and create removal hubs beyond EU territory. The U.K. overhauled its asylum system in a similar direction last month.
Representatives from around 40 of the 46 Council of Europe members are expected to attend a meeting Wednesday on migration in Strasbourg.
The Council of Europe — the continent’s leading human rights organization — wants to counter the narrative that the ECHR is standing in the way of action on migration, including returns. In May, 9 countries signed a letter calling for the ECHR — which came into force in 1953 — to be reinterpreted to allow migrants who commit crimes to be expelled more easily.
“This is our chance to bring that discussion where it belongs — within the walls of the Council of Europe — and to chart a way forward,” the organization’s boss Alain Berset told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook.
Zoya Sheftalovich contributed to this report.