Summit kicks off in Brussels, 27 ready to toughen stance on immigration

Just five months after the adoption of the immigration pact, European leaders are already looking on a new tightening of migration policy on Thursday at a summit in Brussels.

The expulsions of irregular migrants “are the missing link” in European migration policy. “We must think outside the box,” pleaded Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis upon his arrival.

European leaders must notably debate the inflammatory proposal of “return hubs”, transfers of migrants to reception centres in third countries, as Giorgia Meloni's Italy is beginning to do in Albania.

These centres are only a “drop in the ocean” and do not represent “a solution” for “big countries” like Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed, while appearing before the press.

Spain is opposed to it, while France, cautious, invites to “encourage returns when conditions allow”, “rather than organizing returns in hubs in third countries”, according to the Elysée.

The discussion is “very vague and preliminary”, there is “no plan” on these hubs, adds a European diplomat, who does not expect “major decisions” from this summit.

On the offensive, the Italians organized around Giorgia Meloni an informal meeting to promote these “innovative solutions” against immigration, with a dozen countries including the Netherlands, Greece, Austria, Poland and Hungary.

The Hungary of the nationalist Viktor Orban is at the head of the rotating presidency of the Council of The European Union will remain in office until the end of December and will host the next summit on 8 November in Budapest.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni answers journalists' questions in Brussels on October 16, 2024 © AFP – Ludovic MARIN

In May, the European Union adopted the migration and asylum pact, which is due to come into force in mid-2026, with tougher “screening” at the borders and a solidarity mechanism between the 27 in the care of asylum seekers asylum.

Countries like Germany and France are calling for its implementation to be accelerated.

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– “Towards the right” –

And migration issues are once again shaking up the agenda, pushed in particular by far-right parties, which are gaining ground in many European countries.

Some in the EU “hear what we have been saying for years”, rejoiced the leader of the French far-right Marine Le Pen, who was in Brussels for a meeting of Patriots for Europe, the third political force in the European Parliament after the June elections.

Several governments have raised their voices and are calling for the rules on the expulsion of irregular migrants to be simplified. “The Franco-German engine is pushing for action,” according to a European diplomat.

The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola answers questions from journalists in Brussels on October 17, 2024 © AFP – NICOLAS TUCAT

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed with them on Monday in a letter to the 27. She is proposing a new law that would revise the 2008 “return directive” in order to facilitate deportations.

A similar initiative had failed in 2018, but “six years later, the debate has evolved”, “towards the right” of the political spectrum, notes a European official.

This hardening of tone comes at a time when the number of illegal crossings detected at the borders of the European Union fell by 42% in the first nine months of 2024 compared to the same period the previous year, according to the European Border Surveillance Agency Frontex.

This summit is also taking place in a transition phase at Brussels, where the new European Commission team is expected to take up its duties in early December.

It is marked by the difficulties of several European leaders in their countries, particularly Emmanuel Macron, weakened by the explosion of deficits in France and the fragile relationship with the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier, from the right and without a majority in the National Assembly.

Support for Ukraine, in the presence of Volodymyr Zelensky, and the call for de-escalation in the Middle East are the two other major issues on the agenda of the European summit on Thursday.

But “the most sensitive discussion” between the Member States “will certainly be that on immigration”, assures a senior official, who fears that the Europeans will not be able to agree on this aspect in the final declaration.

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