EU nations agree step-by-step approach to migration reform

LILLE, France — European Union interior ministers on Thursday agreed to create a new decision-making body amid efforts to beef up the 27-nation bloc’s borders, and to kick-start desperately needed reforms to the EU’s malfunctioning asylum system on a step-by-step basis. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who acknowledged divisions, said “the idea was to change the method because the ‘all or nothing’ strategy until now was mostly leading to nothing.” The first step will consist in setting up a mechanism to support EU nations where migrants first arrive. The European Union’s Home Affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, praised the new body as “a great achievement,” saying it will help “strengthening the political governance of Schengen.” In Lille, the ministers also were to discuss new proposals to respond to what have been dubbed “hybrid attacks” using migrants, after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko last summer invited thousands of people, many of them Iraqis, to Belarus with the promise of helping them to Europe. Denmark, for example, suggests a reference in the reform plans “to the funding opportunities for physical barriers under the Border Management and Visa Instrument,” given that the European Council’s legal service “has made it clear that it is possible to fund physical barriers from the EU budget.” The European Commission, which holds the EU’s purse strings and is responsible for proposing joint legislation and ensuring that the rules are respected, has long opposed the use of European money to fund walls, which several officials have said are not in line with the bloc’s values.