Summit: The “27” agreed on tougher immigration measures

The heads of state and government of the 27 member countries of the European Union agreed on Thursday night to take it series of measures in order to decrease the number of irregular migrants arriving in Europe.

“We will act to strengthen our external borders and prevent irregular immigration,” said the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen following the work of the informal summit in Brussels in the early hours of this morning.

The measures agreed upon include initiatives to strengthen Bulgaria’s border guarding infrastructure with Turkey, such as installing cameras and to build outposts.

EU member states are also seeking mutual recognition of deportation decisions to increase, Ms von der Leyen said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it important for EU member states to cooperate on migration, “on external border controls, improving infrastructure, cooperation with countries of origin and transit (of migrants)”.

The meeting – in which the president of Ukraine participated as a guest Volodymyr Zelensky– was originally convened due to a rise in asylum applications and irregular migrant arrivals in EU countries, prompting several governments to call for tougher measures.

In 2022, authorities recorded a 64% increase in irregular border crossings compared to the previous year, according to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX). While asylum applications increased by almost 50%.

In addition, around 4 million refugees from Ukraine found refuge in EU member states.

Before the meeting, the Chancellor of Austria Carl Nehammer requested that 2 billion euros be used from the EU budget to funded border fence on the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

This expense is not explicitly mentioned in the text of the conclusions of the session.

The deal to take tougher measures is announced while a wider overhaul of EU immigration and asylum rules is still pending.

At the informal summit, moreover, member countries generally adopted the Commission’s recommendation to become more flexible grants for environmentally friendly technologiesto help European industry compete with those in the US and China.

As the text of the conclusions states, Member States will be able to offer tax incentives in industries of strategic importance.

Additional amounts will be allocated from pre-existing EU funds in order to support some sectors while ensuring that distortions of competition are avoided. No mention is made of the issuance of new common debt.

EU leaders also agreed that more needs to be done to combat the shortage of skilled labor and secure the supply of important raw materials. The issue will be discussed in more detail at the next summit in March.

In the text of the conclusions, the European Council also calls on Serbia and Kosovo to normalize their relations after the recent tensions.

On the war in Ukraine, the summit agreed to “strengthen” sanctions against Russia and tighten measures to prevent circumvention, while expressing support for efforts to “hold all” those responsible for war crimes to account. In addition, the European Council “reiterates that the future of Ukraine is within the European Union”.

It is highlighted that the EU approved the disbursement of a seventh tranche of 500 million euros for the provision of military aid to Ukraine, as well as the training of 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers within 2023.

The EU and its member states have provided nearly €12 billion in military aid to Kyiv since the outbreak of war in February 2022, the text summarizes, while reiterating a pledge to support Kiev’s “macroeconomic stability” and post-war project reconstruction. For the latter, it is noted that procedures are continuing to use the Russian resources committed to its jurisdiction.

RES-EMP

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