Distrustful of the freshly passed asylum and migration pact, European Union countries and the European Commission have turned to third-country deals to curb irregular migration, thus aligning with Hungary, until recently criticised as a migration hardliner. The Asylum and Migration pact was endorsed by the European Parliament on 10 April after years of complex negotiations between the political groups and EU countries. Yet, no lawmaker cheered, as is usual with big pieces of legislation. On the contrary, the atmosphere was grim. The reason is simple: Everyone, absolutely everyone, despises the pact, the result of laborious negotiations navigating diverging interests, which brought forth a watered-down law that is to no one’s liking. Still, MEPs supported it because it is “better than nothing,” as some quipped. Member states are to rubber stamp it next Tuesday. But wary of the “mandatory solidarity” and the effectiveness of the pact, countries have rushed to find new ways for migration management, looking to outsource asylum procedures to third countries – in the same vein as the UK’s Rwanda-style deal – instead of focusing on swift implementation of the freshly passed laws. A group of up to 15 EU member states, led by Czechia and Denmark, are preparing a letter to the European Commission calling for migrants trying to reach the EU to be transferred to selected third countries before reaching the bloc’s shores. Proposals for the next steps in the reform of the EU’s migration and asylum policy are included in the letter, to be sent to the European Commission in mid-May so they are incorporated in the EU Strategic Agenda and the programme of the new Commission after June’s EU elections, the Czech Interior Ministry told Euractiv. |