Interview with Sigmar Gabriel + Dombrovskis in China

During today’s meeting of the Competitiveness Council, the Spanish presidency of the Council is attempting to achieve a general orientation on the Euro 7 emission standard. You can read more about this in our News.

On Thursday, in Brussels, the Justice and Home Affairs Council will convene. Among other matters, discussions will revolve around the progress of ongoing deliberations regarding the EU asylum reform. The question of the so-called crisis regulation, which would allow for highly flexible measures in the case of particularly large numbers of refugees, remains unresolved. Depending on its application, this could lead to more rejections at the EU’s external borders but also more transfers to countries like Germany.

Yesterday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock issued a warning on X (formerly Twitter) against the introduction of the crisis regulation. “Instead of orderly procedures, the significant discretion that the current crisis regulation grants in the event of a crisis would de facto create incentives for the further transfer of large numbers of unregistered refugees to Germany,” she wrote. “The federal government cannot accept this responsibility.” At the same time, she called for a swift adoption of the Common European Asylum System.

Last week, the European Parliament announced a blockade of negotiations on the planned asylum reform. Members of Parliament justified their decision in part by the fact that member states have not yet taken a position on the proposed crisis regulation.