Immigration ministers from EU member states are set to meet on Thursday to hammer out the deal. For the first time since the asylum crisis in 2015, EU asylum policy would be reviewed. That year, more than a million refugees arrived in the EU, mostly from civil war-stricken Syria.
“No mandatory transfer”
Since then, EU countries such as Spain, Italy, Malta and Greece have asked for more aid as they were the first to take in refugees. Wealthy destination countries such as Germany, France, Sweden and the Netherlands said they shouldn’t be the only places newcomers end up. However, there was particularly dissatisfaction with Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland. They prefer not to see refugees in their country who are mostly from Islamic countries
Distribution of migrants
The agreement mainly concerns the distribution of refugees in the EU. For a long time, southern and western European countries wanted a fair distribution of refugees. But Eastern European countries are not expecting this. Johansson reports that there is a trend towards an additional option, whereby countries can “redeem themselves” by offering financial and personal support to countries hosting large numbers of refugees. “There is no mandatory transfer”, says the EU commissioner, “but I expect that a compromise can be found in that direction”.
For Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a European agreement would also be good. The cabinet has been in an uproar for weeks as the VVD calls for a more restrictive migration policy. Another VVD congress took place last weekend where migration was the main topic for Rutte’s supporters.