Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR)

A proposed general approach of the AMMR (pdf) was circulated amongst national delegations in the Council yesterday. It has come a long way from the Commission's original proposal and contains a host of new provisions, requirements, options, opt-outs and unaccountable decision-making structures.

The general approach follows a compilation of member state comments (pdf) circulated on 22 May and a revised compromise text (pdf) on 26 May. These came after a "policy debate" in COREPER on 17 May and follow similar documents that were published by Statewatch two weeks ago.

Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR)

A proposed general approach of the APR (pdf) was also circulated yesterday. Like the AMMR, it is long and complex.

As Catherine Woolard of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles said to Politico Europe, the architecture created by the new set of rules is "byzantine":

"This has become this sort of absurdist unworkable, absurdist construction,” Woolard said. “You have the rules, and then you have exemptions to the rules, and then you have offsets to the responsibilities."

A previous compromise text of the APR (pdf) was put together after the COREPER debate on 17 May and circulated to delegations on 26 May.

A note (pdf) circulated by the Swedish Presidency on 26 May highlights the key points of the AMMR and APR as they stood at the time.

Single Permit Directive

The Council's general approach (pdf) is due to be approved tomorrow by the JHA Council, but not everyone is happy - in a statement (pdf), the Hungarian delegation says:

"We are opposed to efforts to encourage the mobility of workers within Member States, which poses a serious challenge to the countries of our region. The recast of the Directive would further restrict the space for manoeuvre, particularly with regard to the possibility of changing status and allowing periods of unemployment.

National competences should be retained to ensure that decisions can respond flexibly to labour market needs and changes in these, taking into account the different economic, geographic, cultural and social conditions. We consider it essential to leave Member States the freedom to decide who can enter their territory to work, under what conditions and admission procedure. Therefore, we would like to stress our strong position according to which Hungary does not consider either necessary or appropriate the further harmonisation in the field of legal migration, and in this regard we would like to reiterate our position on legal migration in general.

We acknowledge that the reached compromise is the result of proper negotiations, however, for the reasons mentioned above Hungary abstains from adopting the general approach."

Documentation

AMMR
General approach (Council doc. 10084/23, LIMITE, 6 June 2023, pdf)
Presidency compromise text (Council doc. 9711/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
Compilation of replies by member states (Council doc. 9660/23, LIMITE, 22 May 2023, pdf)
APR
General approach (Council doc. 10083/23, LIMITE, 6 June 2023, pdf)
Amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a common procedure for international protection in the Union and repealing Directive 2013/32/EU (Council doc. 9710/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
Note
Balance between solidarity and responsibility under the Pact on Migration and Asylum - Discussion paper (Council doc. 9712/23, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
Single Permit Directive
General approach (Council doc. 9371/1/23 REV 1, LIMITE, 26 May 2023, pdf)
Statement by Hungary (Council doc. 9371/1/23 REV 1 ADD 1, 26 May 2023, pdf)