On the way to today’s meeting of migration ministers in Luxembourg, EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson is quite optimistic.
– It is possible to reach a real step forward today. The French Presidency has received acceptance for the step-by-step principle and they have done a very good job. Now we have a first big step within reach – but we are not quite there yet, says the Commissioner.
The asylum and migration pact that she presented in the autumn of 2020 is a package with everything from new rules regarding border management and reception of asylum seekers to an increased focus on the return of migrants without asylum grounds.
Increased voluntariness
For a long time, however, everything has been stuck in sharp opposition from countries such as Poland and Hungary over the idea that everyone should contribute to receiving new arrivals in a crisis situation. Now France has launched a kind of test balloon for that system, with increased voluntariness and only temporarily.
That is not really what Sweden wants.
– We want a legally binding redistribution, but we have been stomping now in the same place for a number of years. The French approach where we have to take step by step is based on giving a little to some and a little to others and then you have to take step by step. Then we hope that it will be successful: small steps in the right direction in any case, says Minister of Migration Anders Ygeman (S) on the way to the meeting.
Message today?
He, too, is so far only cautiously optimistic about progress right now.
– I hope that we will take some new steps today, but it depends on how many countries are prepared to move on. There seems to be support in the south. We are positive about moving forward if there is support from a significant number of member states, says Ygeman in Luxembourg.