The European Union follows Italy’s demands and pulls out all the artillery to create a “new page” in the history of relations with Tunisia, with the main focus being to contain immigration. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister, and Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister, announced this Sunday, as part of an official visit to the country, a financial assistance macro-package of 900 million euros .
Italy, the EU country where the most migrants arrive at the moment, marks the pace of the next steps in European asylum and migration policy. Tunisia has emerged as the new exit door on the Central Mediterranean route, surpassing Libya. In this scenario, Rome seeks to strengthen cooperation with the border guard to stop departures and expedite the deportation of people who do not meet the asylum requirements.
After imposing some of their red lines in the “historic” Migration Council this week, the transalpines redouble the pressure on their European partners to revalidate an agreement that curbs the outflow of refugees in the style of the pact that Brussels sealed with Turkey in 2016. The Tunisian president, Kais Saied, already warns the Europeans that theirs will not be a country “reduced to the simple police that watches over the protection of other people’s borders.”
Against this backdrop, the European delegation has deployed its financial and diplomatic machinery to seduce the country. “We have reached an important milestone between the relationship between Tunisia and the EU. We share more than geographical proximity: history. And we have common interests in a world of growing instability,” Von der Leyen said from the Arab country.
A new partnership based on five pillars has been announced. The first is a macro package of financial assistance of 900 million euros for the economic development of the country. 150 million will be disbursed immediately. It has also agreed to modernize the investment agreement. The foundation is laid to promote digital connectivity and student exchange within the framework of the Erasmus program and to strengthen energy cooperation for clean energy. And most importantly, the EU and Tunisia seal an anti-trafficking alliance to which Brussels will allocate 100 million euros to speed up returns and contribute to border protection and rescue operations. A model that is already applied with Libya. “We both have a common interest in breaking the cynical model of human trafficking. It is terrible to see how they put people’s lives at risk for their economic benefits,” the Berlaymont tenant justified. A whole artillery with which Meloni has claimed to be “very satisfied”, escorted by Rutte and Von der Leyen.
The Dutchman has recognized that “immigration is one of the most important issues” today for Europeans. Asylum policy is one of the major pending issues in the EU in the last decade. The EU has lacked a common migration policy since 2015, when the refugee crisis blew up the Dublin regulation, which establishes that the first country of entry is responsible for receiving and managing migrants and refugees.
On Thursday, the 27 Interior Ministers reached a “historic” agreement in extremis to unravel this knot and reconcile the principles of solidarity and responsibility. Italy fought until the final moment to scratch concessions. Through the agreed legislative basis, the Twenty-seven commit to relocate 30,000 people each year from the countries with the most pressure. But one thing became clear in 2015: Mandatory casting fees are not an option. Countries like Hungary and Poland – which have already brought this measure before the European Justice – would never accept it and comply. Thus, countries are given the option to compensate this “solidarity” through a kind of penalty that involves paying 20,000 euros for each rejected asylum seeker. Budapest and Warsaw voted against. But immigration policy, unlike others such as fiscal, does not require unanimity and can be achieved by a qualified majority.
In this way, the EU unblocks, for the first time in eight years, the Asylum and Migration Pact. It seals the base to implement a migration policy that accelerates returns at the border. Germany did not leave happy at all. Berlin wanted more guarantees for the protection of unaccompanied minors and more clarity on which countries are considered “safe” for deportations and a difference between countries of origin and transit. But Rome kept the pulse. And he managed to make each Member State the guarantor and responsible for choosing the countries of return.
Although it is a very important step, the EU still has a long way to go to complete the Asylum Pact. Once the Council’s position has been established, very arduous negotiations with the European Parliament are now ahead -in what is known in the jargon as trialogues-. The European Parliament has a radically opposite position in some aspects. For example, he wants to establish a crisis management mechanism with compulsory reception in situations of mass arrivals. The capitals shy away from any imperative. This will be one of the most important and decisive dossiers of the Spanish Presidency of the EU, which assumes the helm of the block on July 1.
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