Tracking the Pact: Council prepares to approve negotiating positions
Topic
Country/Region
07 June 2023
The Council is hoping to approve its negotiating positions on the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR), Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR) and Single Permit Directive on legal migration at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting tomorrow. The texts, published here, were circulated in the Council yesterday (AMMR and APR) and at the end of May (Single Permit Directive).
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
Image: EU Council Eurozone, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR)
A proposed general approach of the AMMR (pdf) was circulated amongst national delegations in the Council yesterday. It has come a long way from the Commission's original proposal and contains a host of new provisions, requirements, options, opt-outs and unaccountable decision-making structures.
The general approach follows a compilation of member state comments (pdf) circulated on 22 May and a revised compromise text (pdf) on 26 May. These came after a "policy debate" in COREPER on 17 May and follow similar documents that were published by Statewatch two weeks ago.
Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR)
A proposed general approach of the APR (pdf) was also circulated yesterday. Like the AMMR, it is long and complex.
As Catherine Woolard of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles said to Politico Europe, the architecture created by the new set of rules is "byzantine":
"This has become this sort of absurdist unworkable, absurdist construction,” Woolard said. “You have the rules, and then you have exemptions to the rules, and then you have offsets to the responsibilities."
A previous compromise text of the APR (pdf) was put together after the COREPER debate on 17 May and circulated to delegations on 26 May.
A note (pdf) circulated by the Swedish Presidency on 26 May highlights the key points of the AMMR and APR as they stood at the time.
Single Permit Directive
The Council's general approach (pdf) is due to be approved tomorrow by the JHA Council, but not everyone is happy - in a statement (pdf), the Hungarian delegation says:
"We are opposed to efforts to encourage the mobility of workers within Member States, which poses a serious challenge to the countries of our region. The recast of the Directive would further restrict the space for manoeuvre, particularly with regard to the possibility of changing status and allowing periods of unemployment.
National competences should be retained to ensure that decisions can respond flexibly to labour market needs and changes in these, taking into account the different economic, geographic, cultural and social conditions. We consider it essential to leave Member States the freedom to decide who can enter their territory to work, under what conditions and admission procedure. Therefore, we would like to stress our strong position according to which Hungary does not consider either necessary or appropriate the further harmonisation in the field of legal migration, and in this regard we would like to reiterate our position on legal migration in general.
We acknowledge that the reached compromise is the result of proper negotiations, however, for the reasons mentioned above Hungary abstains from adopting the general approach."
Documentation
- AMMR
- General approach (Council doc. 10084/23, LIMITE, 6 June 2023, pdf)
- Presidency compromise text (Council doc. 9711/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
- Compilation of replies by member states (Council doc. 9660/23, LIMITE, 22 May 2023, pdf)
- APR
- General approach (Council doc. 10083/23, LIMITE, 6 June 2023, pdf)
- Amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common procedure for international protection in the Union and repealing Directive 2013/32/EU (Council doc. 9710/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
- Note
- Balance between solidarity and responsibility under the Pact on Migration and Asylum - Discussion paper (Council doc. 9712/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
- Balance between solidarity and responsibility under the Pact on Migration and Asylum - Discussion paper (Council doc. 9712/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
- Single Permit Directive
- General approach (Council doc. 9371/1/23 REV 1, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
- Statement by Hungary (Council doc. 9371/1/23 REV 1 ADD 1, 26 May 2023, pdf)
Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
Further reading
EU: Tracking the Pact: Compromise texts, member state comments, "balance between solidarity and responsibility"
Council documents detailing the state of play with the Asylum Procedure Regulation (including comments from the member states), the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, and a Presidency discussion paper on the "balance between solidarity and responsibility".
Tracking the Pact: Detention of children and families for the asylum "border procedure"
The Council of the EU wants to simplify the detention of families and children for the purposes of processing asylum applications at the borders.
Tracking the Pact: Latest Council documents on Asylum and Migration Management Regulation and Eurodac
Discussions are ongoing on the Pact, with member states debating how to deal with the European Parliament's position on Eurodac and discussions ongoing within the Council on the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation. Documents published here provide an insight into the issues under discussion.
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.