At the EP General Assembly, a vote was held on the EU Commission’s deadlocked immigration and asylum package.
According to a written statement made by the EP after the vote, the new rules approved include measures to speed up the return of irregular migrants and prevent them from traveling to other countries within the EU.
The package, which obliges immigrants to be resettled in member states when deemed necessary by the EU, binds situations other than these to the principle of voluntariness, as a requirement of the “solidarity mechanism”.
Accordingly, when one of the member states is flooded with immigrants, other member states will support some of the refugees in their own countries and provide financial support to the oppressed country.
The package, which also envisages accelerating the issuance of long-term permits after 3 years of legal residence in EU countries and integrating the beneficiaries of temporary protection status, also provides the right of long-term residents of the EU to move to another EU country with their family without additional work restrictions.
“We are making progress”
EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Twitter: “A very important vote was held in the EP today for my immigration proposals. We saw that our pragmatic, practical and above all ‘European’ approach to migration has serious political support. Progress. We’re recording.” made the statement.
The package will be negotiated by the EP and the European Council at the next stage.
The talks are expected to begin after the ministers of the member states reach a consensus at the EU justice and interior ministers meeting on 8-9 June.
Immigration and asylum package
Since the influx of immigration in 2015, the EU Commission has prepared a new bill consisting of a series of legislative proposals, roadmaps and recommendations due to the lack of a solution on how to disperse asylum seekers and return those whose asylum applications have been rejected.
Regarding the package announced by the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen in September 2020, no results could be obtained due to the different attitudes of the member states.
Last year, during the EU Presidency, France adopted a “step-by-step approach” to progress on the package. Thereupon, an agreement was reached on two elements in the package, namely strengthening the EU’s borders and a solidarity mechanism.
2022 was recorded as “the year when the EU received an unprecedented level of irregular migration since the migration crisis”.
In 2022, 330 thousand irregular entries were made to the EU, corresponding to an increase of 64 percent compared to the previous year.