Danish Presidency Cuts Resettlement Proposal Off at the Knees

Commission President Barroso is probably less 

than thrilled by the Danish rejection of resettlement 

by Rikke Brammer Buk

EuroNews managed to get a brief interview yesterday with Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Do you have confidence that this summit will end with a Common Migration Policy tomorrow?

“I feel very positive that we will come up with a solution. Of course, at this point, we do still see some issues of concern, some issues that we need to negotiate further. But nothing that would stop us from coming up with a policy tomorrow. How ever, we also have to take into consideration the Commission.”

What has already been agreed upon, what do you have as a certain success/achievement by now?

“What we have agreed up on among the member states is that we do not appreciate the Commission’s proposal on resettlement of successful asylum seekers. That we unilaterally agreed upon. We have also agreed that we all are willing to contribute financially to a migration policy, if we of course know what such funds are being spend on. We have an issue with Greece that have been given lots of money over 6 years to deal with their problems, and no one currently knows what that money have been going to.”

Are you confident so far, that what you have achieved will be applauded by the Danish people?

“We of course have the opt-out regarding this policy,  and so it will not be implemented at the legal level but I do believe that the Danish people will welcome the suggestions that we have agreed upon so far. In this government we would like to, in a couple years'  time, to put to a referendum our opt-outs, and hope to get rid of them. It is our belief that if we achieve this policy, the Danes will welcome it.”

How will the EU be able to secure human rights for the asylum seekers if resettlement is off the table?

“We believe that the redistribution proposal from the Commission did not do anything to secure the human rights of asylum seekers and it did not deal with rejected asylum seekers. It only dealt with already approved asylum seekers. Therefore we do not believe that this objective will compromise their human rights.”

Do you feel that the focus on the external borders addresses the long term perspectives of immigration into the EU?

“Very much so. I truly do believe that the EU's external borders should be an essential part of a common policy, because by securing our borders we also free up resources for dealing with other problems, such as human rights, in areas such as the relocation camps, that we have in our neighbour countries. Also, we free up resources to deal with integration within the EU. If we come up with a successful external border system, it will reduce the financial cost of having to deal with illegal immigrants inside our borders, and we believe that it is the best way forward.”

Do you also feel that the intense focus on the southern borders addresses the long term perspectives?

“The Council has recommended to the Commission today, that we should expand our views to include also the eastern borders. We in the Council feel that it is necessary to improve the external borders on all aspects and not just focus on the southern borders.”

Do you think that possible  negotiations with Turkey in a “carrot perspective” should be included as a means of dealing with immigration in the next round of negotiations?

“I must say that I do not have the mandate to talk about that, at the moment. This is because we do not have the ministers present to cover the legal area on that topic.”

Do you have any further statements?

“I would just like to say that after today’s tour de table, where I have described the conclusions that we have come up with so far, of course no final agreement has been made yet. We are awaiting the Commission’s response, and so we cannot conclude upon anything until tomorrow.”

With the apparent rejection of resettlement, the Commission face the collapse of a central pillar in their initial proposal