Difficult with new EU migration rules

The EU will remove the so-called Dublin Regulation, meaning the rules that say that asylum must be sought in the first country an asylum seeker arrives. In any case, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, believes and hopes. But it remains to be seen.

The message was surprising and not so surprising. The EU has tried for many years to create new rules for asylum seekers, but disagreement has been and continues to be great among member states. On Wednesday next week, Responsible Commissioner Ylva Johansson will present the new Commission proposal. In the same vein, they withdraw the proposal that has been underway since 2016 but that no one has presented.

It was at the end of Question Time, following Ms Der der Leyen’s keynote address on the State of the Union, that she said that the Dublin Regulation should be abolished and replaced by a new European system to address migration. However, no details were presented, although they will include “a new strong solidarity mechanism.” Otherwise, this is something that previous attempts have failed at.

The Dublin rules are certainly already exaggerated, but they are still the only ones we have. During the migration crisis of the fall of 2015, asylum flows were ignored and released, so that countries like Sweden and Germany, where most asylum seekers wanted, were flooded. Here and there the principle that you should seek asylum in the first country you end up in was abandoned, and only later were external borders closed.

Since then, there has been an unsuccessful debate within the EU and between Member States about a fairer distribution of asylum seekers. In plain text, this means that countries where there aren’t many applicants should be able to receive more. Of course, these countries, which are mainly located in eastern central Europe, did not want to do that, and there it has run aground. No matter how much we may think in Sweden that it would be good, mandatory distribution is not a viable option. It seems unlikely that one has now managed to untie that knot.

Moderate MEP Tomas Tobé tells TT that he is confident that the Dublin rules will be lifted if that means more a common asylum test leading to reduced immigration to Europe. And of course you can hope so, but what does a joint asylum examination mean in practice? Tobé also does not want to force any country, at the same time that he also wants to reduce pressure on individual member states. These are mutually incompatible goals.

Only to the European Commission you want a new set of rules, it is not certain that this is the case. The European Parliament and, in particular, the Heads of State and Government of the Council must also participate. And there are the old contradictions. Why should the principle of the first country of asylum be replaced by the one that everyone can support?

It is probably the case that the EU can do quite a bit on this issue, at least with new asylum rules. What caused the 2015 crisis to subside was that Turkey was forced to turn off the crane, and the insulted countries of Southeast Europe expanded their border guards. Member countries like Sweden also tightened their asylum rules. If we want to reduce the influx of asylum seekers and other migrants, we simply need to control the external borders of the EU and at the same time reduce the so-called pull factors, that is, what makes migrants look for certain countries that are considered more generous .