After much back and forth: the EU countries agree on an asylum compromise

class=”sc-29f61514-0 icZBHN”>

In the dispute over European asylum reform, EU countries have agreed on a compromise. According to the Spanish Presidency of the Council, Member States cleared the way for the so-called crisis regulation, which is considered the final building block of the reform, during the Permanent Representatives meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. The crisis regulation provides for significantly stricter measures if a particularly large number of migrants threaten to overload the asylum system.

There was recently a dispute between Germany and Italy over the role of private sea rescue organizations in the Mediterranean. With the compromise, Italy has now largely gained the upper hand: at the insistence of the ultra-right government in Rome, according to diplomats, a paragraph was removed from the legal text that referred to the operations of rescue workers at sea. He said the consequences of these rescue operations should not be used to determine a crisis. The paragraph now only exists as an additional clause in the draft.

Germany blocked the crisis settlement for a long time due to humanitarian concerns, but agreed to an initial compromise at the end of September. The asylum reform, which has been fought over since the 2015 refugee crisis, should last until the European elections in June 2024. However, to do this, EU countries still need to agree on the legislative package with the European Parliament, which is also difficult is considered to. (AFP)

Source: Blick