[FR] Asylum seekers: “The paradox of the project of the” Vienna-Rome axis “

After the diatribes between France and Italy over the tragic voyage of the Aquarius, all eyes are now on Germany, the scene of a political psychodrama between Angela Merkel and her Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer, leader of the CSU party. Both are members of the same coalition so painstakingly put together. The exploitation by the leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Party of the slightest flaw in the Chancellor’s migration policy is consistent with the criticism levelled at Angela Merkel since 2016 by the right wing of her political family. The fact that the Bavarian Federal Minister is willing to push his advantage to the point of threatening to jeopardise the coalition if he does not get his way on a tougher return policy for rejected asylum seekers says a lot about the fears he has of the AFD, the far right that has become the leading opposition party in Germany, in the run-up to regional elections in Bavaria. The Chancellor has seen it all before, but will be further weakened by this political blackmail.

From a European point of view, it is more significant to look at Seehofer’s move to appear alongside the young new Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, to support his initiative to form an ‘axis of volunteers in the fight against illegal immigration’ with his new Italian counterpart, Matteo Salvini, and why not with other countries governed by a majority hostile to the reception of migrants, such as the Netherlands and Denmark. While the concept of an ‘axis’ conjures up sombre memories, in reality it masks a project that has been nurtured for several months by the incoming Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union to ‘turn the tables’ on European asylum policy.

Austrian approach

Over the last ten years or so, this policy has been progressively built on a foundation of Dublin regulations. However imperfect they may be, these regulations guarantee, in a uniform manner, that any migrant in distress who arrives on the soil of an EU country can have his or her rights respected there, in accordance with the international conventions and fundamental rights on which the construction of Europe is based. They also provide a common framework for the return to their country of origin of those who cannot benefit from protection, while respecting the same fundamental rights. This legal basis is currently being put to the test by the inadequacy of solidarity mechanisms, in other words, in the event of an influx of asylum-seekers being “relocated” (transferred from the country where they arrived, such as Italy or Greece, to another EU country). Strengthening this solidarity by calling into question the principle of the responsibility of the ‘country of first entry’ has the corollary of strengthening the quality of controls at the Union’s external borders.

The future Austrian Presidency seems to be planning something quite different. Inspired by the so-called Australian approach, its aim is to prevent migrants without visas from reaching the EU’s external borders. Asylum applications to the EU would be outsourced to transit countries and ineligible persons sent back to ‘safe’ countries. The list of countries that could play this buffer role – Turkey, Egypt, Niger, Libya, Albania – inspires every fear. Such an approach would certainly not eliminate illegal entries; it would generate more suffering, resolve none of the underlying causes of forced migration and betray the foundations of European integration.

We should also emphasise the paradoxical nature of this new approach, designed to allay fears of foreigners. Emanating from parties that have become the most Eurocritical, if not “sovereignist”, and which never miss an opportunity to denounce the authoritarianism of Brussels, it would require an unprecedented integration of the Union’s external policy tools. To establish European bases for managing upstream transit, commensurate with the high-risk flows crossing the Mediterranean – currently 150,000 to 160,000 people a year – would require successful coordination of intelligence resources, asylum processing agencies and even military resources, which would be unprecedented.

In other words, the Austrian and Italian governments are not hesitating to take a giant step towards the federalisation of European security in order to avoid having to show solidarity when it comes to receiving asylum seekers. The forthcoming European Council on 28 and 29 June will no doubt be the first to reveal this dilemma, and we can only hope that it will at least bring to light one inescapable truth: when it comes to migration, the European approach is the only one, because of the cooperation it generates between EU Member States, that can define a long-term path to control migration for a Europe that is neither a sieve nor a fortress.

Jérôme Vignon
Tribune published in Le Figaro, on 17 June 2018