Dear all,
Today was the last Home Affairs Council before the European elections.
I want to thank Minister Dan for steering the discussions today in the right direction. I must admit that I am cautiously optimistic and hopeful.
Regarding the European Border and Coast Guard: everyone agrees that this is a key file, and I think we can really expect to find agreement soon. The Commission – and myself personally – will continue to lend the European Parliament and the Council full support in the negotiations to reach a balanced agreement before the European elections. This will be an important legacy that we leave for our citizens, who expect the external borders to be secured even better.
On the asylum reform: this is not about rushing through any agreement before the elections. This is about addressing shortcomings which existed four years ago and still continue to exist. So the reasons why we need this reform are more valid than ever. For us the question is not “package” or “no package”. We are committed to the adoption of all the 7 proposals that we have put on the table.
They are all equally necessary to address the shortcomings that led us to make these proposals in the first place. I want to avoid any misunderstanding however: we will continue working on the reform of the Dublin Regulation.
Pending the adoption of the asylum reform, which must remain a priority, I dare to say that I am cautiously optimistic in the progress that we have made towards temporary arrangements after disembarkation.
I very much welcome the work started by the Romanian Presidency on this in the past few weeks, and today I heard a lot of consensus around the room about the key principles. As we have said many times before, such temporary arrangements would come with support from the EU agencies and with financial support from the EU budget.
I was also pleased to see the overwhelming consensus on stepping up our cooperation with key third countries along the Central Mediterranean migration route, as well as Morocco and Turkey.
These countries should be commended for the work they do to host the most vulnerable migrants and refugees, but also prevent dangerous irregular migration and fight criminal smugglers. The EU is ready to support them further. Our citizens also expect the European Union to keep them safe.
We have continuously been adding building blocks towards our Security Union. In the last weeks only for instance, agreements were found on interoperability, which will close gaps between our information systems, on introducing stronger controls on the sale of dangerous chemicals, which can be misused for the production of home-made explosives, on the access to financial information by law enforcement, and on stronger security features for national ID cards. Our progress on building a genuine and effective Security Union is tangible.
Still there is more we can and should do, and the most urgent issue is terrorist content online, where our proposal is on the table, and the Council is ready to negotiate with the Parliament. I hope that the Parliament will be able to agree on its position rapidly, so we can have a political agreement before the European elections in May.
I also take the opportunity to welcome the adoption of RescEU earlier today in this Council, which will strengthen the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, and thereby also our response to help Member States overcome natural disasters.
Lastly, with less than 3 months to go until the European elections, it is our duty to ensure that our citizens can cast their ballot without interference and without disinformation to confuse their choices.
The resilience of our electoral systems is a fundamental issue for our democracies. This is why with the Member States we want to put in place as a matter of urgency a Rapid Alert System to flag ongoing disinformation campaigns in real time and coordinate our responses.
We are also asking online platforms to deliver on their commitments and show responsibility which is commensurate to their economic size in fighting disinformation.
As you can see, today was a productive and constructive home affairs council. Urgent work will now need to continue over the next few weeks and months.
Thank you.