The resounding failure of voluntary quota system for the distribution of migrants between EU countries further complicates one of the key objectives that has been set Pedro Sanchez for the semester of the Spanish presidency between July and December of this year: close an agreement on the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.
This Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism was created in June 2022 with the objective of relocate 10,000 migrants within a year from the countries on the first line of the Community’s external borders (such as Spain, Italy or Greece) to other Member States.
Despite its optional nature, the instrument did not have unanimous support. Only 18 of the 27 Member States signed it: Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania. Six countries -Austria, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia- they expressly rejected it.
[Sánchez impulsará un “pacto de inmigración” en la UE que comprometa a “los países del Norte”]
Almost 10 months after the agreement, barely a total of 950 relocations of migrants have been carried out, that is, one tenth of the expected global figure, according to the latest figures to which EL ESPAÑOL has had access. The main beneficiary country has been Italy, from where a total of 578 people have been transferred to France, Germany, Luxembourg and Croatia.
From Cyprus, 335 migrants have been relocated to Germany, Romania, Bulgaria and France. Spain has only benefited once from this mechanism, with 34 migrants transferred to France on February 14. In Malta there has also been a single transfer of 3 people to Romania.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and his Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, during their meeting in Rome at the beginning of April.
These meager figures contrast with the migratory pressure that front-line countries are currently suffering, particularly Italy. Only in the first three months of 2023, the number of irregular entries into the EU amounted to 54,00026% more than in the same period of the previous year, according to the latest Frontex data.
The Central Mediterranean route represents more than half (27,651 people) of irregular arrivals, with an increase of 305%. In contrast, migratory pressure decreased by 62% on the Canary Islands route (2,216 irregular arrivals), although it increased by 9% (up to 1,946) on the Eastern Mediterranean route between North Africa and Spain.
[Italia decreta el estado de emergencia migratorio durante seis meses]
The lack of European solidarity in migration matters is precisely the main argument used by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Melonito decree the immigration state of emergency for the next six months. A decision on which the Committee on Ursula von der Leyen has been put in profile with the argument that it is national competences.
Why has this failed? Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism? Brussels itself gave a series of reasons in an internal document that was distributed among the interior ministers last December: the lack of sufficient resources; the slowness in registration procedures, interviews with candidates and file management; or the excessively restrictive preferences of destination countries when selecting migrants.
The Community Executive maintains that relocations will accelerate in the coming weeks and months thanks to the greater practice of the participating countries. and also for a simplification of procedures that was approved last February and that according to Brussels it will facilitate and make the selection of candidates for relocation more flexible and it will improve the exchange of information between all the participating countries.
The establishment of a permanent and compulsory distribution mechanism of migrants is one of the main demands of Spain, Italy or Greece in the negotiations of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. At the same time, it constitutes the main stumbling block to reach an agreement, since the countries of the East (particularly Poland and Hungary) flatly reject any quota system. A blockade that has persisted since the refugee crisis of 2015.
The last to rule on this issue this week was the European Parliament, which is a co-legislator on migration. In a report whose rapporteur is the PSOE MEP and president of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Interior Committee, Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilarthe European Parliament defends the implementation of mandatory quotas but only in a crisis situation, when a Member State is faced with massive and sudden arrivals of migrants.
