EU leaders are tomorrow expected to approve a new migration pact at their two-day summit in Brussels expected to be dominated by talks on the financial crisis that has swept the globe.
The pact will pave the way for new rules on to how the EU will tackle the controversial issues of migration and asylum. It was negotiated over the past few months and, on Malta’s insistence, will include a clause that provides for the reallocation of refugees to other EU states who volunteer to accept them.
Important as the pact is, particularly to member states on the EU periphery such as Malta, Italy, Greece and Spain, the summit will focus on the financial crisis and the need for continued concerted action by all the member states to pull Europe out of the danger zone.
"Unfortunately, the discussion on the migration pact, one of the original main goals of the French Presidency, will only be discussed by EU leaders briefly as we need to concentrate on the financial crisis," a senior French diplomat said yesterday.
"The pact has already been discussed and agreed to by EU Justice Ministers a few weeks ago and, thus, the talks by EU leaders should not take long. There are no outstanding issues and it seems the leaders will endorse the new pact."
Under the pact, the 27 EU member states will make a political commitment to share the burden with countries "faced with specific and disproportionate pressures on their national asylum system".
The European Commission will have to launch a new voluntary intra-EU resettlement mechanism to be used if the need arises.
Speaking during a pre-summit press conference yesterday, Commission President José Manuel Barroso focused on the financial situation. Once the credit crisis subsides, Europe must rethink financial regulation and supervisory rules, including for hedge funds and private equity, he said.
"There is light at the end of the tunnel but we are not there yet," he added, after impressive rallies were posted on European stock markets over the last two days following last week’s crash.
"Once we have put financial markets back on their feet, we must ensure that, in the future, they function properly for the benefit of citizens and businesses rather than themselves.
"We must rethink regulatory and supervision rules for financial markets including banks, hedge funds and private equity."
The EU leaders will also discuss the future of the Lisbon Treaty, which is still in abeyance following its rejection by the Irish, and a set of new rules on climate change and energy aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions all over the EU and producing cleaner energy by 2020.