For the first time since the beginning of the refugee crisis in autumn 2015, Germany has indicated to the EU Home Affairs Council in Brussels that it could be prepared, in exceptional cases, to refrain from compulsory distribution of refugees as part of the reform of the Dublin rules.
A corresponding compromise proposal was presented by Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the representative of France on Thursday at lunch of the interior ministers in Brussels. The paper, which the two distributed, is available to SPIEGEL.
"The solidarity mechanism should be based on the distribution as a rule," it says initially, this will provide for EU members such as Italy or Greece, where particularly many refugees arrive, "predictability and reliability".
In addition, however, it should also "give Member States the opportunity, in justified cases, not to redistribute and implement other forms of solidarity". The exception should not apply indefinitely and must always be justified again. The alternative measures must have a certain extent, so it is not enough to send a few blankets over the border.
The derogation should only apply if a sufficiently large number of EU members agree to participate in the mandatory distribution of refugees.
The paper describes nothing less than a turnaround in German refugee policy. So far, Chancellor Angela Merkel in particular had blocked any attempt, inter alia, the Austrian Council Presidency, to renounce a mandatory distribution mechanism in the reform of the Dublin rules and the common European asylum law. Corresponding proposals by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz clear it still at the October summit with the note, because you have to make a little more effort.
Seehofer should convince Merkel
Due to the continuing resistance of countries like Hungary and other Eastern European EU states, the EU had not made progress in the field of distribution for years. Especially due to pressure from the Germans, the demand was never officially removed from the agenda.
It is now unclear whether the heads of state and government endorse the German-French proposal in principle at the summit at the end of next week. Seehofer was asked by his colleagues to convince Chancellor Angela Merkel of the benefits of the solution. The conversation that Seehofer is now aiming for after the CDU party congress, should be interesting. After all, the Chancellor and Federal Interior Minister were in the early summer because of the refugee policy for weeks cross and led the governing coalition in a serious crisis.
Seehofer and the other interior ministers attached importance at their meeting to the fact that one must continue to work on a mandatory distribution mechanism, even if one now tries first, other parts of the European asylum reform, which are uncontroversial, on the way. This includes, for example, the approximation of accommodation standards for refugees in the EU.
Seehofer wants to achieve that concrete progress can be seen before the European elections in May. He wants to show the citizen that Merkel's promised "European solution" to the refugee crisis is actually making progress. That he himself is the one who brings this about should lend the matter a special spice from his point of view.
Whether he succeeds, however, is open. For some legal acts, Brussels reports, there is "considerable need for discussion".