All 27 of the heads of state or government of the European Union will be holding a special session of the European Council on February 9-10, 2023, in order to discuss the migration crisis as well as other topics related to the Russian war in Ukraine.
During the meeting, European Union leaders will be asked to agree to “immediate” operational action in order to address growing concerns about the rising numbers of migrants coming to Europe.
Topics to be discussed during the special session will include measures to improve the security of the European Union’s external borders, improved relations with countries from which migrants originate, better sharing of data between EU members about migrant flows, and how to streamline the procedures for returning migrants to their countries of origin.
The Migration Crisis in Europe
Large-scale irregular migration into the European Union became a major concern when the numbers of incoming migrants began to skyrocket in 2014, largely as the result of the wars in Libya and Syria. These numbers peaked in 2016 after they were successfully reduced when the European Union concluded a deal with Turkey to pay the country more than €3 billion a year (since increased) to house and care for refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and other points east who would have otherwise continued their migration onward into the European Union.
Restrictions and border closures related to the pandemic also helped suppress the number of incoming migrants to the European Union in recent years, but Frontex (the EU’s border control agency) announced that more than 330,000 “irregular” migrants entered the European Union in 2022, the highest number recorded since 2016.
Of those arrivals in 2022, Frontex reported that the western Mediterranean route (via Spain) saw a reduction in irregular border crossings by 21% while the central Mediterranean route (via Italy and Malta) saw an increase of 51%, the Western Balkans (via Serbia) by 136%, and the eastern Mediterranean (via Greece) by 108%.
Compounding the migrant issue in Europe is the ongoing war in Ukraine which has seen some five million refugees from Ukraine relocated to the European Union and other countries in the region.
A Disjointed Approach
In 2020, the European Union attempted to create an EU-wide “new” pact on migration and asylum that would see member states follow a common policy on migration and accepting asylum seekers, but Italy and France, in particular, have strongly opposed the plan, and, in some high-profile cases, have refused to admit any new asylum seekers at all from some countries. It is unknown whether an attempt to convince EU members to sign the 2020 pact on migration and asylum will be up for discussion during the upcoming special session of the European Council.
Another topic up for discussion for the February 9-10, 2023, special meeting of the European Council will be whether the EU will agree to finance the construction of border fences and border walls to stem irregular migrant flows. Previously, the European Commission had opposed this idea, but member states such as Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, and Poland are strongly in favor of building physical barriers in an effort to reduce the number of migrants.
Other controversial issues on the agenda during the European Council’s special meeting will include improving the “return” rate of migrants and the creation of so-called “disembarkation centers” to be located in countries outside of the European Union that would be paid by the EU to perform “initial screenings” of people attempting to seek asylum in the bloc.
It is also expected that EU leaders will discuss the issue of “secondary migration” during the European Council’s special session, referring to migrants moving from the first EU nation where they initially sought protection in order to (often permanently) resettle elsewhere inside the bloc, especially in wealthier member countries such as Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands.
Other topics that will be discussed during the European Council’s special session on February 9-10, 2023, include ways that the bloc can mitigate the damage being done to Europe’s economy by the United States Inflation Reduction Act and ways to bring down high energy costs that have resulted from ongoing EU sanctions being imposed against Russia.
