BRUSSELS – The EU heads of state and government busily worked through their agenda items on Thursday. Rumors circulated that they might even cancel Friday’s meeting as there was nothing more to discuss.
Then Viktor Orbán entered.
“Our approach to migration is unacceptable,” complained the Hungarian head of state. Exactly, confirmed Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. “We will not proceed with the summit’s final declaration until our concerns are addressed,” they promised.
In the end they got their way – somehow. The entire summit stalled as leaders of France and Germany and European Council President Charles Michel negotiated with Hungary and Poland. Eventually everyone just gave up. Just after 1am, EU leaders called off the summit and went home with a promise to try again on Friday morning.
It was exactly what everyone had hoped to avoid: another migration mutiny.
The talks were “difficult” and “complicated”, admitted Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on his farewell. “We hope the evening brings some advice.”
In many ways, the failure to issue a definitive opinion is purely cosmetic. The real reason behind Hungary and Poland’s last-minute intervention was a protest against a migration deal EU countries pushed through this month to relocate migrants across the continent.
Statement or not, this deal stands. Nevertheless, Hungary and Poland wanted to use the summit to express their dissatisfaction – and they did.
The overnight blockade, described to POLITICO by scores of diplomats familiar with the talks, is just the latest indication that migration is becoming an increasingly unavoidable issue at every EU summit. And as migrants continue to arrive via perilous Mediterranean routes and horrific tragedies such as the recent sinking of a refugee boat off the Greek coast, the problem cannot be dismissed out of hand.
We always talk about migration now
In the room, Dutch leader Mark Rutte suggested leaders revisit the issue at their next summit, while De Croo argued it should simply always be on the agenda, according to one of the people familiar with the discussions, who, like others, spoke anonymously to give him details of the private conversations.
Others pointed to the rise in anti-immigrant attacks in their home countries – including in countries like Ireland which have traditionally been spared anti-immigrant tendencies – as well as the rising popularity of far-right parties, fueled by xenophobic sentiment.
Migration has long been one of the most sensitive issues for the EU. Since the 2015 migration crisis, the Union has tried but failed to overhaul the process for receiving and relocating asylum seekers.
So until last month. Finally, in May, after months of tense negotiations, EU countries agreed on a deal that achieved both.
In short, the agreement would introduce a stricter asylum procedure at the border for migrants who are unlikely to be admitted. It would also create a system that would give EU countries the choice of either accepting a certain number of migrants each year or paying into a common EU fund.
Hungary and Poland detest mandatory resettlements and have vowed not to cooperate.
And at Thursday’s meeting, they also expressed irritation that the deal was pushed through with majority support rather than unanimity. They pushed to adopt a joint statement committing to making EU migration decisions by consensus only (although the EU does not require it).
The text of a possible compromise version of the declaration seen by POLITICO demands that the EU “find a consensus on an effective asylum and migration policy”.
Despite Hungarian and Polish protests, the deal is not dissolved.
“The migration agreement remains in place,” said Rutte as he left the summit. “Today was not about the migration pact … it was about Hungary and Poland not liking the way the migration pact was decided.”
And that frustration carried over into Thursday’s session.
“They’re so angry about it that they say they don’t want any conclusions [on migration] “Not at all now,” said Rutte.
Shortly after the leaders parted for the night, Orbán’s political director Balázs Orbán said: summarized the mood on Twitter: “Fierce fight against the pro-migration forces of Brussels!”
A sign for the future
Summit organizers had hoped to avoid such a lengthy talk on migration, fearing it could get heated.
They took several steps beforehand to ensure that the language of the joint statement reassured everyone. First of all, the drafts circulating in advance only indirectly referred to the migration agreement.
The drafts also attempted to circumvent another point of contention: a push by several restrictive countries to include a reference to finding “innovative solutions” to migration.
Although no one wanted to say it publicly, three officials familiar with the talks said the vague term includes the prospect of sending asylum seekers to non-EU countries – a model similar to Britain’s controversial plan to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda. Coincidentally, the UK proposal was dramatically rejected by the UK Court of Appeal on Thursday, just as EU leaders arrived in Brussels.
Instead of mentioning the controversial phrase, the authors instead included a reference to a letter that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s top executive, circulated to EU leaders this week, in which she promised that their European Commission is “ready to continue to develop new ways”. Making progress on…goals, including through unconventional thinking.”
The term “out-of-the-box thinking” – essentially a euphemism that keeps the door open to a range of migration options – was positively mentioned by several leaders during Thursday’s meeting, according to the one with the discussions trusted officials.
A country that seemed content all day: Italy.
Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni has successfully won much of the EU over on migration and was the clear winner of the latest migration deal.
“It was a unique approach that solved all the problems,” she said upon arrival at the summit.
And De Croo, the Belgian head of state, even praised her role as mediator with Hungary and Poland on Thursday.
However, it remains far from clear whether leaders will be able to reach an agreement after a night’s sleep.
“There’s really, really, really a desire to be able to reason,” De Croo said.