Reflecting a harsher tone on migration from EU leaders after a surge in support for right-wing parties, the final statement also called for “determined action at all levels to facilitate, increase and speed up returns from the European Union, using all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools, including diplomacy, development, trade and visas.”
The first diplomat and one other EU diplomat said they now expected the European Commission to work on legislation that would facilitate deportations from the bloc, create a legal framework to set up processing centers outside its borders, and explicitly allow countries to invoke security to shut their external borders.
That said, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen faced pointed questions about the legality and feasability of the proposed fixes for migration.
“You have to be very clear that you have a state actor [that] is having a hybrid attack against the country,” she said when asked how the Commission might design rules on suspending asylum rights.
Quizzed about ethical considerations around migrant processing centers, the EU executive leader said there were “open questions” as to how such centers would function.
The final conclusions carried no mention of the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, which was finalized earlier this year but faces criticism from a number of countries, including Poland. That was another victory for Tusk, who had opposed including any mention.