BRUSSELS — Right-wing political groups in the European Parliament on Thursday sealed an agreement on EU rules to deport migrants staying illegally in the EU after negotiations within the centrist coalition collapsed.
The compromise deal, obtained by POLITICO, gives countries greater flexibility to establish deportation hubs in non-EU countries; allows detention for up to 24 months; broadens the definition of people considered security risks, along with provisions to deport and detain them; and allows the belongings of non-EU nationals to be searched and seized during deportations.
The text also says that filing appeals against the procedure doesn’t automatically halt the deportation process.
It’s the latest in a series of laws aimed at streamlining and firming up EU migration rules following the 2024 EU election, which delivered a shift to the right. That includes a push to boost deportations and to allow countries to deport migrants to non-EU countries that aren’t the person’s country of origin.
Swedish lawmaker Charlie Weimers, lead negotiator for the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, said the compromise resulted from negotiations it held with the center-right European People’s Party and the far-right Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups.
“Now we see this cooperation taking form over time in different negotiations, we can accept that we have a stable majority on the center-right on migration issues,” Weimers said.
The lead negotiator on the law, Dutch liberal MEP Malik Azmani, had tried to find a compromise within the centrist coalition that gave Commission President Ursula von der Leyen a second term (the EPP, the liberals of Renew Europe, and the center-left Socialists and Democrats).
But on Wednesday evening Azmani halted negotiations and sent a compromise proposal to all political groups, igniting fury on the left and right. A Greens official referred to Azmani’s handling of the issue as “chaotic.”
“Half of the text, we didn’t really negotiate it,” said the Patriots’ lead negotiator, Marieke Ehlers. “In the end, he [Azmani] presented his own ‘compromise’ that is not good enough for those on the right, but I would wager that it’s also not good enough for S&D.”
On Thursday, EPP negotiator François-Xavier Bellamy circulated a new compromise text that relies on the support of right-wing and far-right groups.
The text will be put to a vote in the civil liberties committee on Monday and will likely be ratified by the Parliament’s plenary at the end of March. The Parliament will then need to negotiate a deal with EU countries.
“Our compromise is very close to the Council, so I am very optimistic,” Weimers said of the prospect of a quick deal with member countries.
EU Parliament’s right-wing camp seals deal to increase migrant deportations
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