The meeting held in Luxembourg drew a line under the fierce disputes over a common European immigration policy that have been going on for four years now. From now on, the EU intends to adhere to the legislative norms developed and implemented in Germany. Their essence is that asylum seekers who enter the European Union through the territory of a third, safe country are sent back to that country without undue delay.
This system has long been in effect in the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. For example, German border guards serving near Poland do not allow asylum applicants to file a corresponding application in Germany and turn them away right at the border. At the same time, it is now also permitted to deport from the country those people who did not immediately declare their desire for asylum when entering Germany itself, but nevertheless entered the EU via a third country.
As stated by German Interior Minister Otto Schily, the agreement reached will be “an important step in preventing refugee shopping.” It is no secret that many asylum seekers filed their petitions in several EU countries at once and, while waiting, received financial assistance. Thus, as noted at the meeting in Luxembourg, this not only created serious legal problems but also undermined the social systems of the European Union states.
The Irish Interior Minister Michael McDowell, who chaired the meeting, did not hide his satisfaction with the result achieved. According to the politician, now “the last building block has been placed in European refugee law.”
The Luxembourg meeting was the final one at which each side had the right of veto. At subsequent meetings of interior ministers of the already enlarged EU, decisions on immigration policy issues will be taken by a majority vote. Only in this way, according to politicians, can a possible blocking of common decisions by individual countries be prevented.
And the fact that there are dissatisfied parties is already obvious now. First and foremost, it is the Polish side. It is expected that, under the new rules, Poland will not be able to return asylum seekers who have entered its territory, for example to Belarus. After all, this CIS republic, led by President Lukashenko, is not considered a safe country.
Officially, the list of safe countries includes only those that have ratified the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights. However, at the meeting in Luxembourg, Otto Schily expressed doubt about the reliability of countries such as Russia and Ukraine. In the minister's opinion, these states not only themselves supply illegal migrants to Europe, but also serve as transit countries for refugees from Central and Southeast Asia.
Thanks to the efforts of the old EU members, who have been constantly tightening their practices for admitting new immigrants, the flow of refugees to Europe has declined somewhat in recent years. But still, almost daily news reports carry information about attempts by people to reach the coveted shores of Europe in search of a better life.
Meanwhile, it seems that negotiations between the German government and the opposition on a new immigration law, which have been going on for a couple of years in the Federal Republic, have reached a complete deadlock. The two sides have still not been able to agree, in particular, on the question of possible imprisonment for those potential foreign terrorists who cannot be deported to their homeland. In general, security issues have recently been at the forefront of discussions on the long-suffering law. Angered by the lack of progress in discussions with the opposition, the chairman of the Greens, Reinhard Bütikofer, sharply stated that his party would “no longer participate in this farce” and was unilaterally going to withdraw from the negotiations. The ultimatum of the Greens' leadership, which calls on representatives of the CDU/CSU to soften their positions, will remain in effect until this Friday. A serious crisis has also emerged in the ruling “red-green” coalition itself.