Belgium- Brussels : In 2015, Europe was confronted with two enormous challenges which will continue to set the agenda next year: migration and security. While both phenomena are very different, neither know borders, and they remind us that the only way to address them is through a European approach. That is precisely why the European Commission has put forward two comprehensive and bold initiatives: the European Agenda on Migration and the European Agenda on Security.
Migration
In May 2015, the Commission set out a comprehensive approach to migration – our five year plan of steps we wanted to take during our mandate. The European Agenda on Migration presented structural measures to address immediate challenges of the refugee crisis but also reform the EU migration policy in the long run.
Following the adoption of the Agenda, we made significant progress. The tripling of the budget for the Triton and Poseidon operations in the Mediterranean resulted directly in more lives being saved.
We introduced more solidarity into Europe’s migrating policy – setting up a system where 160,000 people in clear need of international protection will be relocated from Italy and Greece to other EU Member States over the next two years. Agents from EU agencies have been deployed as Support Teams in Italy and Greece, to help identify, register and process those who arrive more swiftly.
Unfortunately, things have been moving too slowly. While Member States agreed back in October to relocate 160,000 people in need of protection, today less than 2% of the agreed number of refugees has actually been relocated so far, and only two of the 11 Support Teams meant to be deployed in ‘hotspot’ areas are operational in Lampedusa and Lesvos.
Knowing that the flows will not subside soon, it is clear, however, that there is still a lot more to be done.
That is why we have continued to work for a more comprehensive and European approach, by presenting a more secure and more streamlined approach to how we manage our external borders in the form of a European Border and Coast Guard. European leaders have welcomed our proposals and even committed to negotiating a final deal within 6 months. Leaders have also agreed to speed up the implementation of the relocation mechanism and the hotspots.
In the meantime, we continue our work also for the long run: a full reform of the Dublin system – which determines which EU Member State is responsible for examining asylum applications – is coming next year, together with a comprehensive package on legal migration and integration, including a revised Blue Card proposal for highly-skilled non-EU nationals.
While we may not be there yet, the European Union has made steady progress in the course of one year. We have negotiated an ambitious agreement with Turkey to address the refugee flows from Syria, we have reinvigorated cooperation with the African countries meeting at the Valetta Summit, we have increased cooperation with the Western Balkan countries on the refugee routes and secondary flows there, and we continue to be the biggest donor globally of more than €4.2 billion in humanitarian assistance to address the needs of Syrian refugees. And we are also moving forward on resettlement: we agreed to resettle 22,500 refugees from outside the EU, Member States are now discussing our proposal for a voluntary humanitarian admission scheme from Turkey, and in 2016 we will come forward with a structural resettlement scheme.
Security
The EU and its Member States face several new and complex security threats, which are becoming more varied, more international and increasingly cross-border and cross-sectorial in nature. On 7 January the year started tumultuously with the Charlie Hebdo attacks. On 13 November, the Paris attacks impelled us to speed up our plans under the European Agenda on Security.
The European Agenda on Security, which was adopted in April 2015, sets out how the EU can bolster a more effective and coordinated approach to fighting terrorism, organised crime and cybercrime.
In the framework of the Agenda, the Commission put forward in December 2015 a set of measures to step up the fight against terrorism and the illegal trafficking of firearms and explosives.
More specifically, we proposed to go beyond criminalising terrorist acts as such, but also to include the preparatory phases such as training, travel and financing of terrorism. In addition to our proposals against both the possession and deactivation of firearms, we also presented an Action Plan to prevent criminals and terrorists from accessing and using weapons and explosives through reinforced controls.
In December, the Member States found an agreement on the Commission’s proposal for an EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) system, a deal now set to be sealed by the European Parliament. This will allow us to have a fully operational and effective instrument to safeguard our citizens’ safety, while fully respecting proportionality.
As part of our ambitious borders package, we have proposed to amend the Schengen Borders Code to allow for systematic checks on anyone, including EU citizens, who enters and exits the European Union so that returning terrorist fighters such as the ones that perpetrated the attacks in Paris can no longer return unnoticed.
In addition to moving forward on all the legal texts on the table, we need more trust amongst the European Union Member States to share intelligence and information.
And it is precisely on that note that I wish to end: trust. We have laid the building blocks for finding common solutions in the fields of both migration and security but neither policy will succeed if there is no trust. We need more trust among EU citizens, between EU citizens and their governments, between Member States, and trust towards the EU institutions. Right now, it is precisely the lack of trust that hampers not just our security policies, but also our migration policy.
It is a lack of trust and solidarity that has hindered the relocation process, constantly waiting for the other to move first. It is a lack of trust and spread of fear that has pushed more nationalistic and xenophobic rhetoric to the foreground.
It is a lack of trust that makes some confuse refugees with terrorists. It is a lack of trust in the European dream and its ability to provide collective solutions that makes us all more inward looking and less European.
What we need in 2016 is more trust, more solidarity, more responsibility, more cooperation, more Union, more Europe.
We are at a crossroads right now. In an increasingly globalised and mobile world, we can only move forward collectively and United.
PUBLISHED 13:11 JANUARY 4, 2016
http://neurope.eu/article/europe-at-a-crossroads-time-for-more-europe/