A majority of the 27 member states, including the Netherlands, agree with the new agreements. Only Poland and Hungary voted against. Four other eastern Member States and Malta abstained.
Italy and Greece
The new agreements regulate, inter alia, the assessment of migrants from safe countries at the European external border. Asylum seekers who have little chance of obtaining a residence permit can therefore be immediately detained and possibly sent back. “Targeting countries” such as Italy and Greece can now count on help from other Member States. They take over a certain number of asylum seekers, or pay that obligation if they don’t want to.
For years, EU countries have failed to develop a common asylum policy. Southern countries like Italy and Greece in particular complain that others let them do it themselves. The Netherlands and other Western European member states will only help if the “countries of arrival” welcome asylum seekers themselves and do not let them travel to their preferred country, as was once agreed. Eastern European countries such as Hungary refuse to accept migrants at all.
Historical
The fact that a compromise has now been found is “historic”, according to several of the 27 migration ministers who managed to finalize the deal on Thursday. As soon as they are also agreed with the European Parliament, the new agreements can enter into force.
Recently, the government has repeatedly stressed the importance of a European asylum agreement to keep the reception system for Dutch asylum seekers afloat. If that doesn’t work and the pressure on the haven mounts again, the survival of the divided governing coalition will soon be at stake.