EU justice and interior ministers are gathering in Lille for two days of meetings after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “rebalance” of the visa-free Schengen area.
Part of France's rotating EU presidency, the meetings, which are "informal", are being held in the northern French town of Lille on 3 and 4 February.
On its first day, the EU's interior ministers will meet with the European Commission, representatives from border-guarding entity Frontex, Europol and the EU Agency for Asylum.
Discussions will centre around crisis management in Europe, radicalisation and "lessons learned" from recent events in Afghanistan and in Belarus concerning border and migration management.
📍 Informal Meeting of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs in Lille, #France 🗣Doorstep by Commissioner @YlvaJohansson
— EC AV Service (@EC_AVService) February 3, 2022
🎥 Available here 👇https://t.co/lsOg3Huf14
The influx of refugees from Afghanistan is likely to increase after US troops left the country last year and the Taliban took over the government.
The New York Times reported on 2 February that "more than a million" Afghan refugees are fleeing after the economy collapsed, with the Norvegian Refugee Council (NRC) warning that "between 4,000 and 5,000 Afghans are fleeing into Iran", a percentage of which is likely to attempt to come to the Schengen area.
Another area of concern are the refugees who gathered on the Belarus side of the border EU-member Poland in November.
The EU accused Belarus of engineering the crisis in revenge for sanctions slapped on the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko after its brutal suppression of protests against his rule.
The migrants said they want to get to Germany via Poland and Lukashenko has said that he is ready to send them there by plane if necessary, while accusing Brussels of refusing to negotiate their fate.
Child abduction
On Friday, the EU's justice ministers will meet and discuss about how to protect EU citizens against "hate crime and speech".
Leading internet companies Google, Meta and Twitter will be quizzed about their relationship with with judicial authorities.
Laure Beccuau, a top Paris public prosecutor known for her fight against domestic violence, will speak about her experiences.
The Friday meeting will also focus on EU-wide child abduction alert systems and recognition between member states of parentage established within the European Union.
At the eve of the Lille get-together, French President Emmanuel Macron met with the ministers.
Schengen Council
Macron said that the European Union’s border-free Schengen Area should be managed by regular ministerial meetings just like the euro zone.
"We want to establish a real Schengen Council, to lead the Schengen area, similarly to what we managed to do for the euro zone," he said.
He proposed that the first meeting of the council be held next month.
The Schengen area comprises 26 countries - including non-EU nations Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. During the pandemic, many Schengen nations erected temporary border controls that went contrary to the zone's 'freedom of movement' ideal.
Macron also wants to create a "rapid reaction force" to help protect EU states' borders in case of a migrant surge and is also pushing for a rethink of the bloc's asylum application process.
(With wires)
