EU conservative chief blasts Germany for ‘blocking’ migration deal as rows over asylum seekers heat up – POLITICO

The head of Europe’s conservative parties took aim at the German government Wednesday for “blocking” both a controversial EU migration deal and funding for border controls in Tunisia as tensions escalate across the bloc over migration.  

The comments from Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party (EPP), come as France closes its border to migrants arriving from Italy, and as the German government reinstates checks at its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic amid an escalating row between Berlin and Warsaw. Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also complained to Scholz about Berlin’s plans to finance two migrant NGOs operating in Italy.

With EU capitals increasingly at odds, home affairs ministers will be updated Thursday on the state of play on the contentious EU migration pact, which aims to have common rules to deal with non-EU citizens who want to access the bloc, among other measures.

The European Commission is also due to unblock more than €1 billion in promised funding for Tunisia to bolster its border controls and prevent new waves of migrants heading for European shores.

But Weber said that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition, and in particular the German Greens, was responsible for blocking progress on several fronts. 

“We are asking that the German government gives up its blockade on the crisis legislation in the migration pact,” Weber told journalists, referring to the so-called crisis regulation, part of the migration pact proposal under which the bloc decides the threshold for the EU support in times of migration crisis.

Ministers won’t vote on Thursday but a breakthrough on this topic could take place at any moment.

While several EU countries, and not just Poland and Hungary, oppose the crisis mechanism, Germany’s support is crucial. Since unanimity is not needed, if Germany gets on board that should be enough for the file to go ahead and allow the bloc to finalize a deal at the start of next year.  

But Germany’s Green Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, said Sunday she could not support any deal that would create “incentives” for other EU countries to send their migrants to Germany. Diplomats granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic said Berlin, and especially the Greens, had doubts about the protection of human rights and of unaccompanied minors in the crisis regulation proposal.

In a letter obtained by POLITICO, Baerbock criticized the EU’s migration deal with Tunisia, overseen by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and presented during a trip to Tunis during the summer, which foresees giving the North African country EU money to strengthen border controls and shore up its economy.

“I would like to firmly reiterate our incomprehension regarding the Commission’s unilateral action in connection with the conclusion of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the EU and Tunisia,” Baerbock wrote to the commissioner in charge of enlargement on August 2, complaining that member states have not been kept fully in the loop by the Commission on the deal with Tunisia.  

With local elections looming in Germany and the far-right Alternative for Germany riding high in the polls, the Greens and Baerbock are now coming under pressure from their coalition partners — Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Free Democrats — to drop their doubts on the crisis mechanism.

“We are working within the government as well as within the framework of the EU to ensure that there will be a result as soon as possible, and we are also sure that this will be the case,” a German government spokesperson said.

Getting involved

In response, Weber said he did not understand Baerbock’s position on Tunisia as she has also called for the need to bring down migrant arrivals. “We were confused by what we heard from Baerbock. Is this support? Is this not support? Again, Germany must show responsibility and support the migration pact on the table,” he said during a press conference in Brussels.

With less than a year to go before EU voters elect a new Parliament, migration is a key campaign issue, particularly for the conservative camp which has been pushing hard for the pact to be finalized.

Weber has ramped up pressure on von der Leyen, whose Christian Democrat party is part of the EPP, to prioritize migration in the final year of her term — including by traveling himself to Tunisia late last month to try to spur along the EU-Tunis migration deal. 

So far, the Commission has not disbursed the largest part of EU funds for Tunisia but Weber said an initial tranche of €127 million had now been delivered, of which €42 million is part of the Tunisia deal.

Two months after von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte traveled to Tunisia, the deal is nowhere near to solving the migration problem. According to data from the Italian government, more than 90,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Tunisia since the start of the year and some EU countries are critical of von der Leyen’s approach to the negotiations, according to documents seen by POLITICO.

Diplomats say member states support the deal with Tunisia but have questions about its implementation. One of the questions is why the Commission reached a deal with Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, an autocrat heavily criticized for violations of human rights, without getting the socialists on board.

But for Weber the problem is reluctance, namely in Berlin, to greenlight funds earmarked to help Tunisia’s ailing economy, said Weber, adding the foot-dragging was “unacceptable” and “really frustrating.”

“It’s about political will to convince investors to go there. And therefore you need the political commitment from member states,” he added.