On Thursday, the interior ministers will discuss the reform of the EU asylum system. The federal government requires exceptions for minors and families. This meets with contradiction – not only in the Union.
The Union criticizes the German government’s announcement that it would press for more minors and their families to be exempted from the intended procedures at the EU’s external borders as part of the EU asylum reform. The government is trying to “soften up the original proposal of the EU Commission in various places,” said the parliamentary secretary of the parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei (CDU), the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”. “Exempting families from external border procedures weakens the approach.” Their needs must and can be taken into account in the proceedings themselves.
The EU interior ministers will discuss the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which has been controversial for years, next Thursday in Luxembourg. The EU states are currently trying to agree on the main features of a reform. Among other things, it is about the question of whether there should be preliminary checks on asylum applications at the European external borders. The federal government is demanding exceptions for minors under the age of 18 and families, as Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the Funke media group and Family Minister Lisa Paus (both Greens) told the German Press Agency.
FDP and Greens
A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior told the “Tagesspiegel” in a similar way. According to the newspaper, the original Commission proposal already provides for exempting children under the age of 12 from the border procedure.
FDP faction leader Christian Dürr had already spoken out in the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” against exceptions for under-18s. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai told the “Tagesspiegel” that all refugees must be provided with humane care and that the asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders be carried out efficiently. “If these rules apply, then there is no need for a debate about possible exceptions that would only jeopardize unification in Europe.”
The Greens parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann warned against an erosion of the right to asylum. Nothing has yet been decided in the “extremely difficult” negotiations in Brussels, she told the newspapers of the Funke media group (Sunday). “Many EU member states are taking a restrictive line and want to make the Commission’s proposal even more restrictive. We’re opposed to that.”
Source: Stern
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