More Talk on Deportations—but Will Brussels Finally Act?

While the world is focusing on U.S.-led efforts to secure peace in the Middle East, justice and interior ministers from European Union member states are meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, October 14th, for discussions on increasing deportation powers.

Officials will also discuss border control at an EU summit next week. But, as is often the case, Politico appears to sum up the purpose of these talks in its report on what it describes as Brussels’ “battle against far-right politicians,” as well as its “plans to appease growing public discontent.”

In other words, it is fairly clear that leaders are concerned mainly about winning back public support and may not—in fact, are unlikely to—match tougher rhetoric with action.

For example, the odds of the Commission backing European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) reforms are low. That’s despite reports that more than a dozen countries support this as a way to ease deportations. London’s Times newspaper notes that the convention is blamed for frustrating “thousands” of (even the most ridiculous) asylum deportation cases and that proposals would reduce its ability to prevent removals pending hearings, which can take years to be heard.

Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen have been particularly vocal about the need for reform, so that the more-than-seven-decade-old document can “match the challenges that we face today.” But they have so far been ignored by higher powers.

The Commission is also now expected to miss its own legal deadline on announcing which EU member states should receive help with their migration issues. Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner’s call on Tuesday for “common European solutions that give us control over who is allowed to enter the EU and who must leave it again” is unlikely to fill disgruntled leaders—not to mention voters—with any hope.