European Union

Plenary sessions : The situation in Ethiopia ahead of the 24 May parliamentary elections, the political crisis and killings in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and preparations for the 21-22 May Riga Eastern Partnership Summit will be discussed with Commissioner Christos Stylianides, the Latvian Presidency, and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, from 15.00 on Wednesday.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : The situation in Ethiopia ahead of the 24 May parliamentary elections, the political crisis and killings in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and preparations for the 21-22 May Riga Eastern Partnership Summit will be discussed with Commissioner Christos Stylianides, the Latvian Presidency, and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, from 15.00 on Wednesday.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The European Commission’s newly proposed Agenda on Migration recognises Europe’s legal and moral obligation to save lives and provide protection to people fleeing war, persecution and violence. All EU member states should fully back the proposals, as the right to asylum in Europe is enshrined in Article 18 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and both international and EU law obligate member states to offer asylum and provide safeguards to those needing protection.

People are currently paying huge sums to travel on unseaworthy boats to flee war in Syria, conflict and repression in Africa and the dangerous situation in Libya, because Europe’s land borders are closed. Decisions made with full knowledge of the journey’s life-threatening nature prove these people’s desperation. They have no other option because EU countries provide almost no safe and legal routes to seek asylum in Europe. Existing legal avenues of humanitarian visas, family reunification and sponsorships are not utilised by most member states, driving the demand for smugglers’ services.

“The most efficient method of shutting down smugglers is to eliminate the need for their services by providing safe and legal channels to Europe”

The EU has now added a naval operation to “disrupt the business model of smugglers and traffickers networks”. However, the most efficient method of shutting down smugglers – a goal we agree with – is to eliminate the need for their services by providing safe and legal channels to Europe. A military operation will lead to more deaths, either directly as collateral damage in this unwinnable “war” against smugglers or indirectly as desperate refugees take even more dangerous journeys when boats are destroyed. The ultimate irony is that these people are fleeing war, persecution and violence; with this military action they are being met with the same.

Thankfully, Europe has also recognised the need for effective search and rescue in the Mediterranean, and has responded by utilising available expertise within the European border agency Frontex. Several European states and private humanitarian organisations have also made ships available to provide search and rescue outside of the Frontex-led operations. As the Mediterranean has become “the world’s deadliest border”, it is imperative that proper search and rescue equipment be in the right location when it is needed. This requires a substantial operation, perhaps even greater in scope than Italy’s Mare Nostrum.  As life is the most fundamental of human rights, further work on establishing search and rescue operations should receive top priority.

But does Europe’s obligation end when people are plucked from the sea? Certainly not.

Given the legal responsibility under international and EU law toward asylum seekers, individual member states cannot rescue without also assuming their share of Europe’s responsibility to provide international protection. This is where the need for “a European solution” and European solidarity are key, as it is unfair for a small number of countries to take responsibility for the majority of asylum seekers and refugees.

“Refugees are not refrigerators, and their apportionment should not be a logistics exercise”

The Commission has proposed an EU-wide resettlement scheme that includes a “distribution key” as a safe and legal channel to Europe. While the resettlement numbers proposed are miniscule compared to the vulnerable people in need of protection, and resettlement has long been a safe and legal channel open to member states, this new scheme does offer a statistics-based method to apportion refugees. A similar temporary relocation scheme and “distribution key” for those already on EU soil would transfer asylum seekers from member states under the most strain.

While these schemes may contribute to building European solidarity in situations of mass influx and emergency, these models fail to take “the best interest of the individual” into account. Refugees are not refrigerators, and their apportionment should not be a logistics exercise. Refugees are children, women and men, most of whom have undergone traumatic experiences during their flight, seeking stability and a new life. Factors such as ties to a member state – such as a family member residing there, existing language abilities and the strength of the existing ethnic community – should be taken into consideration to promote effective long-term community integration. Without such consideration, and given wide disparities in treatment by member states, refugees will continue to move around Europe to live in places most suitable to their situation – as we would all do if our children faced the same peril.

Protection also includes integration support, which the EU must continue to prioritise. The offer of language tuition and additional job skills training, the recognition of existing qualifications and the opportunity to access the job market, decent health care and housing will all help to create a functioning, taxpaying, member of society.

A new rights-based approach to asylum and migration reflecting fundamental European values is urgently needed. While this situation is complex, and further complicated by the realities of European politics, the status quo is untenable.

 

IMAGE CREDIT: CC / FLICKR – UNHCR

The post Fortress Europe: Can the EU handle asylum with both pragmatism and humanity? appeared first on Europe’s World.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : The situation in Hungary, following Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's remarks on the possibility of reinstating the death penalty there and the government’s public “consultation” on immigration, were debated by MEPs, Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Latvian State Secretary for European Affairs Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica for the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers and Mr Orbán himself on Tuesday afternoon.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : The situation in Hungary, following Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's remarks on the possibility of reinstating the death penalty there and the government’s public “consultation” on immigration, were debated by MEPs, Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Latvian State Secretary for European Affairs Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica for the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers and Mr Orbán himself on Tuesday afternoon.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On Tuesday, Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s first vice president who has been tasked with streamlining and overhauling the way Brussels operates, presented one of his signature initiatives – the so-called “better regulation” package aimed at scrutinising more carefully the rules Brussels imposes on businesses.

As the FT wrote after our hour-long interview with Timmermans, he is a relatively late convert to the Brussels reformist camp, having changed his view after a lot of soul-searching in 2005, when his native Netherlands voted against an EU constitutional treaty that he himself helped negotiate.

Perhaps Timmermans’ most notable contribution to the EU reform debate since then was a June 2013 Dutch government report he helped author that spelled out 54 different policy areas that should not be ceded to Brussels. Now Timmermans gets to practice what he preached – even more so, now that David Cameron, the newly re-elected British prime minister, has launched his attempt to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU focused on many of the same reform issues. Timmermans is widely expected to be the European Commission’s point man in those talks with London.

As is frequently our practice at the Brussels Blog, below we offer an annotated transcript of our interview. Timmermans’ responses have been slightly edited for clarity. We started with that 2013 Dutch report, since much of what Timmermans recommended back then appears to be part of his agenda now that he’s in Brussels – ideas that were also articulated in a November 2013 op-ed in the FT.

I didn’t know you would bring this up but you do because it clearly shows that what I think and what I want to do is more or less in line with what I proposed as foreign minister, and those who say, well, ‘He’s only doing this to appease David Cameron’ can see that I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time.

Actually, it all started with an op-ed that I wrote in your newspaper, and Jean-Claude Juncker picked up on that and when he asked me to do this with him, he referred to some of the ideas that I had written down in the Financial Times. So, this was very much part of his thinking and his programme, as it was in Martin Schulz’s thinking, and this is what they both brought forward in the electoral campaign.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs will give their views on the European Agenda on Migration presented on 13 May in a debate with Commission Vice-president Frans Timmermans, Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and the Council Presidency on Wednesday at 9.00.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs will give their views on the European Agenda on Migration presented on 13 May in a debate with Commission Vice-president Frans Timmermans, Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and the Council Presidency on Wednesday at 9.00.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The Council on 19 May increased advance payments for the youth employment initiative (YEI) by almost €1 billion in 2015. Instead of about €67 million, member states will receive around €1 billion as advance payments this year. The regulation adopted by the Council removes the main bottleneck in the implementation of YEI by releasing the financial burden on the member states' budgets and allowing them to roll out quickly measures against youth unemployment. The adoption of the regulation follows the agreement reached in the Council on 21 April and the approval of the European Parliament on 29 April.  

Ensuring a critical financial mass 

The increase in advance payments will be achieved by raising the pre-financing rate of the specific YEI allocation to 30%. The current level of pre-financing for YEI amounts to 1% (1.5% for member states under financial assistance). Experience shows that under the current rules it is not possible to reach the critical financial mass to allow member states to start the implementation of YEI actions. Due to a lack of funds, member states cannot advance sufficient payments to beneficiaries. This considerably hampers the start of projects aimed at helping young Europeans to find a job or a traineeship. Member states with the highest levels of youth unemployment face the strongest budgetary constraints. The new regulation offers a solution to this issue to the benefit of young people, as requested by the European Council.  

The increase of advance payments does not require any change in the EU's multiannual financial framework nor any amending budget. It provides the maximum impact in terms of support to the beneficiaries, within the budget available.  

Background 

The Commission pays advance payments to the member states automatically after the adoption of each operation programme. Further payments, so-called interim payments, are only made to reimburse expenditure already made by member states. EU countries therefore usually have to pre-finance a large part of projects from their national budgets.

YEI was agreed by the European Council in February 2013. Its purpose is to provide additional funding of €6.4 billion in the period 2014-2020 for promoting youth employment to the regions most affected by youth unemployment. The eligible regions are 

• those where the youth unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 exceeded 25% in 2012 and
• those where youth unemployment was more than 20% in 2012 as long as they belong to member states where youth unemployment exceeded 30% the same year  

A dedicated budget of €3.2 billion has been set aside for the YEI. This requires no co-financing at national level. An additional €3.2 billion comes from allocations from the European social fund to member states for the 2014-2020 programming period.  

Around 7 million young Europeans are currently without a job and are not in education or training.  

Next steps 

The regulation enters into force the day after its publication in the Official Journal of the EU.