The EU wants to discuss a new asylum policy. (archive image) Camilla Kranzusch/dpa (archive image) ©
On Thursday, the EU interior ministers will discuss a common asylum system. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is optimistic, but there is a huge creak in his coalition. Above all, the Greens are struggling with the new course.
Munich – Paper is patient. If you want to find out why many Greens are alienated by the federal government's new asylum policy, you have to scroll through the 2021 election program to page 239. "The asylum procedure takes place in the host Member State," it says. "Early asylum procedures at the external borders are not compatible with this." And a few lines further: "We reject inhumane camps and closed facilities, transit zones or European subcamps in third countries."
On Thursday, the EU interior ministers in Luxembourg will deal with much of what is so explicitly rejected in the Green programme. It is not the first meeting of this kind – and certainly not the last. But things are moving. Even the often silent Chancellor speaks out. The EU countries are "as far along as we have ever been" in the consultations on a common asylum policy and the distribution of refugees, says Olaf Scholz. "We should do everything we can to ensure that we now come to a settlement that involves close cooperation between the states at the external borders and all others."
EU asylum policy: traffic light coalition is at odds
It sounds like a chancellor's appeal for unity. Because within his alliance there are grumbles. In essence, the EU plans to examine asylum procedures already at the EU's external borders (see below). "We must not leave the countries at the external borders alone," said the Federal Chancellor. But Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) has already promised that tough negotiations will be held in Brussels "to ensure that no one gets stuck in the border procedure for more than a few weeks, that families with children do not get into the border procedure, that the right to asylum is not undermined at its core." Even EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to make asylum decisions at the border "quickly and fairly".
The critics seem to give little credence to this. Above all, there is excitement among the Green grassroots. Hundreds of members are openly critical of it. One was "shocked", it says in a letter, about which the "mirror" reports. "The expansion of safe third countries, poorer legal protection, mandatory border procedures in detention camps and a massive tightening of the failed Dublin system are just some of the tightening of the law laid out in the proposed reform of the asylum system." The very first row of the party is not among the signatories. But at least Anna Gallina (Hamburg Senator of Justice), Astrid Rothe-Beinlich (parliamentary group leader in the Thuringian state parliament) and Timon Dzienus (head of the Green Youth) are among them.
Asylum policy at EU level: Members of parliament from the federal and state governments are concerned
Another letter is also circulating in Berlin. It was signed by 31 members of parliament from the federal and state governments, most of them from the SPD. There are also a few Greens. "We share the concern of many people that the proposals for a new Common European Asylum System could weaken the right to asylum," it said. There are fears of "detention-like conditions" at the external borders.
One of the signatories is the Munich SPD member of the Bundestag Sebastian Roloff. When asked, he explains: "From my point of view, more support for the municipalities, a binding distribution of asylum seekers in Europe and faster asylum procedures are needed as soon as possible. Deterrence or harshness against desperate refugees does not help here." Party friends Olaf Scholz and Nancy Faeser will hear a lot more in the coming days. (Mike Schier)
