Commission stays course on migration after Brexit

Avramopoulos says policy won’t change despite falling popular support.

The European Commission’s migration chief says there are no plans to rethink the bloc’s migration policy after the British vote to leave the EU, despite claims from some countries that the issue is fueling Euroskepticism.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s migration commissioner, said in an interview that while the British referendum’s outcome “now calls for a period of reflection” on several key issues, the EU should stick to its refugee strategy.

“Migration is one of our 10 priorities and this will not change,” Avramopoulos told POLITICO, adding that the Commission would continue to push EU countries to do more to help deal with the flow of migration, including with measures to be introduced this week to reform asylum policies across the bloc. “I intend to propose further reform of the Common European Asylum System soon, to further complete our envisaged comprehensive overhaul.”

Migration played a significant role in the British referendum campaign as the focus of intense anti-Brussels rhetoric from Brexit supporters. Prime Minister David Cameron told EU leaders at a summit last month that concern about immigration was a major factor in the outcome — even though the U.K. itself was exempt from the many of the bloc’s migration policies, including a mandatory system for relocating asylum-seekers across the Union that had proven politically unacceptable to some member countries.

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Officials were quick to stress that even before the U.K. referendum, the EU’s migration agenda was “already one of change,” and pointed to promises in the Commission’s 2015 and 2016 work programs about making “a new start” and avoiding “business as usual.” After the meeting of EU leaders last month to deal with the fallout from the Brexit vote, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the bloc’s focus would not be on making new reforms, but rather on carrying out reforms already in the works.

On the migration front, those include plans to relocate refugees across the Union under an agreement that was formally, if reluctantly, approved by some leaders and is legally binding for member countries. It also includes proposed changes to the bloc’s system for processing asylum claims that could include fines on countries that do not agree to share the burden of accepting refugees. Both proposals have been criticized by several governments, especially in Eastern and Central Europe.

Continental drift

The migration issue threatens to become even more controversial on the Continent after the Brexit vote, as other countries deal with Euroskeptic, anti-immigrant sentiments. Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blamed EU migration policies for the Brexit vote, will hold a referendum of its own on October 2 on the Commission’s mandatory relocation requirement. It will be the first such plebiscite on European migration policy in any EU country.

Hungarian officials say it will be politically hard for the Commission to ignore a result that they expect to be an overwhelming rejection of EU policies. The Hungarian referendum question reads: “Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?”

But Avramopoulos said the referendum will not deter the EU from carrying out its policy, regardless of whether it gets a thumbs-down from Hungarians.

“Their vote will certainly not been ignored,” he said. “We always show respect for the verdict of the people but it will not be the end of the relocation program. That is not dead and that has to be implemented.”

He added that “when the moment comes and we will have a sincere discussion with the Hungarian government we shall manage to find a solution.”

Officials said that a more serious challenge to the policy could come from a legal case against it launched by Hungary and Slovakia in the European Court of Justice. Slovakia, which now holds the presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, has also strongly opposed the relocation plan and its leaders have called for a “sustainable” migration policy.

Legal experts said that while there is little chance the case can be won by Hungary and Slovakia, they aren’t ruling out the possibility that the Court could force changes to the policy. In the meantime, “pending the outcome of this action, in the absence of their suspensive effect, relocation obligations under the decisions remain valid,” according to a report presented last week by the European Asylum Support Office.

The Commission has responded to the criticism from national capitals by showing its policies — including a deal with Turkey that has helped reduce the numbers of migrants arriving in Greece — were having a beneficial effect.

But Avramopoulos said that even in countries where support for the EU is relatively strong, there was a danger that support for migration policies could weaken.

“There is always this fear,” Avramopoulos said. “That’s why the EU must be able to answer these questions in a very convincing way.”