The Civil Liberties Committee of the European Parliament yesterday took up a suggestion by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil and rejected the proposed new Frontex rules approved by member states earlier this year.
The intention was to introduce new rules of engagement in future anti-migration patrol missions coordinated by Frontex, similar to the ones off the coast of Malta over the past four years.
The unexpected move by the committee will now need the endorsement of the EP plenary next week. If the committee's stand is endorsed, the proposal will be scrapped and the European Commission will have to decide whether to re-start the whole process from scratch through a new legislative proposal.
Following a heated debate during a session of the Civil Liberties Committee in Brussels, the majority of MEPs backed a resolution by Dr Busuttil, the EPP's coordinator for the committee, to reject the proposed rules and send them back to the Commission.
Dr Busuttil's initiative was also backed by the Liberals, the Greens and the Conservatives with the only exception being the Socialists, who decided to back the new proposals.
During the debate it became evident that, despite the fact that the legal services of the EP had declared that the rules were ultra-vires because they went further than the remit the Commission and the Council had, both the Spanish EU presidency and the Commission were putting pressure on MEPs to approve them as soon as possible in order to become enforceable before the start of the already scheduled upcoming Frontex missions this summer.
According to the Commission's representative, Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström had personally sent a letter to all the MEPs members of the committee urging them to approve the rules "as these will save the EU from a repetition of last year's incidents" when Malta and Italy argued over which of them was responsible to take illegal immigrants found closer to Lampedusa.
Labour MEP Michael Cashman, who acted as the EP's rapporteur on this dossier, pressed MEPs to approve the new rules and, in a direct swipe at Malta and Italy, he said that "frankly speaking, we also need to do this because we want clear rules that avoid situations such as those last year where two member states refused to save people at sea".
The Socialist rapporteur's comments attracted a strong and immediate response from Dr Busuttil who rebutted that the suggestion that some member states had risked people's lives at sea was patronising and deeply offensive.
"It is especially offensive to countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Malta that have been saving lives at sea for the past years and have been doing so on their own." he said. "I take exceptions to these claims".
In his intervention, Dr Busuttil said the EP should reject the new rules as the Commission had no legal competence to enact them in the first place.
Other MEPs criticised the Commission and the Socialist MEP of "using the emotional card" to sway their vote in favour of the rules.
When a vote was taken, 24 MEPs voted to reject the rules and 11 approved them.
Visibly satisfied, Dr Busuttil said after the vote that the pressure to approve the rules was overwhelming and coming from all sides. "But we resisted and rejected these rules because we had legal advice clearly stating that the Commission acted in excess of its legal powers and also because these rules are not good and cannot be supported".
The proposed rules were originally approved by the EU Council earlier this year and were intended to introduce a new code of how member states should act when saving lives on the high seas during Frontex missions.
Malta had objected vehemently, arguing that what was being suggested would put more weight on the island. Despite its objections, and those of Italy, the Council still approved the proposals.
According to the draft guidelines, all illegal immigrants and asylum seekers saved during Frontex operations would have to be transferred to the member state hosting the mission. This would mean that even those illegal immigrants picked up closer to Lampedusa than Malta will have to be transferred to Malta if the country would be hosting the mission as it did over the past two years.
Following the Council's approval, Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici had declared that Malta had no intention to participate any longer in Frontex missions if the new rules would be enforced.