EU will attempt to break deadlock on asylum reforms
The European Union will next week try to salvage its asylum and migration reforms after years of discussions and stalemate.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, will meet for talks on Tuesday in Meseberg, Germany, ahead of a June 28 summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
In the past week deals have been struck between EU governments and the European Parliament on five bills. The two most contentious remain – reforms to the Dublin Regulation and to EU asylum procedures.
One change, favoured by northern countries and opposed by Italy, extends the period in the Dublin Regulation during which an asylum seeker can be in a country before being sent back to the first EU country that they landed in, from six months to between five and 10 years. The other source of division is a law preparing the bloc for another migration crisis.
Under the current proposal, the mandatory migrant relocation scheme applies in situations of “extreme crisis”, which is opposed by the new Austrian government, by Hungary and by its Visegrad country allies.