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Demonstration against the tightening of asylum laws in Berlin: border procedures at the expense of human rights
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
Today, EU interior ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to discuss a major reform of the European asylum system. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has a significant tightening of the previous rules in her luggage, but the traffic light is divided over the proposals. Now the CDU has offered support – but Faeser is resisting a non-partisan compromise.
"There is only one chance to improve the situation: and that opportunity lies in Europe. There is no isolated German way," the SPD politician told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. The CDU, which is unfortunately far removed from the European party it used to be, should understand this."
Such a commission at the purely national level "would not change the causes of the problem," she said. Faeser warned: "And no one should forget that the right of asylum has a high value in our constitution. Anyone who wants to touch the right of asylum is playing the dirty game of the AfD and pushing boundaries that must not be moved."
The proposal for such a cross-party commission comes from Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer. According to his ideas, the Commission should draw up a proposal within six months. Among other things, he is concerned with lowering asylum seeker benefits to the level of other EU countries in order to reduce a financial pull effect. However, Kretschmer also brought into play the introduction of an upper limit for those seeking protection. And a constitutional amendment: the right of asylum would have to disappear from the Basic Law, if necessary. Germany must organize itself as a "force for action, and if a change in the law is necessary for this, it must also be done," said Kretschmer.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz and Schleswig-Holstein's Education Minister Karin Prien of the liberal wing of the CDU support Kretschmer's proposal.
A Europe of fences
At the meeting of interior ministers, a new attempt is to be made to initiate a reform of the European asylum system. On the table are draft legislative texts drawn up by the current Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union on the basis of proposals from the EU Commission. In particular, they provide for a much more rigid approach to asylum seekers with no prospect of staying.
"It is important that we achieve results now," Faeser said before the meeting. Otherwise, more nation-state isolation is to be expected. The aim is to save the Europe of open borders. If the EU's external borders are not reliably controlled, the Schengen system would be in danger, Faeser explained. This was created to enable border-free travel within Europe.
The group of German Greens in the European Parliament, on the other hand, warned against a compromise "at any price". The plans for so-called border procedures would be at the expense of human rights and would be ineffective, said their spokesman Rasmus Andresen to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Children in particular should not be held in mass camps for months. Nock was more critical of the Left MEP Cornelia Ernst. She described the reform plans as "a plea for a Europe of fences and walls", which is about de facto abolishing the right to asylum in Europe.
mrc/dpa