Brussels/Copenhagen – The informal meeting of EU interior ministers on Tuesday in Copenhagen focused on the fight against illegal migration. The chair country Denmark has been one of the hardliners in the EU on migration policy for years. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) stated after the council that the interior ministers wanted to further intensify the measures taken for deportations and broaden European alliances for deportations to Afghanistan or Syria.
“After the deportations to Syria and Afghanistan from Austria and Germany, there is broad consensus among the European interior ministers that returns and deportations must go beyond isolated events. We will continue to expand the necessary alliances,” said Interior Minister Gerhard Karner in a statement after the council. Karner had said at the beginning of the council that he was “very grateful” to the Danish presidency for putting the topic of deportations, returns, and safe third country models at the center of the discussions, “because we need to be more robust and tougher regarding deportations.”
Danes want “innovative solutions”
“The European asylum system is broken. We need innovative solutions,” said his Danish counterpart and current representative of the council presidency, Kaare Dybvad Bek, to journalists before the meeting. Half of the people applying for asylum in Europe are rejected, and only one in four of the rejected individuals is sent back to their country of origin. The EU needs faster returns as well as innovative agreements with countries outside the EU.
Karner emphasized that a legal framework is necessary for the return centers, which is crucial. A credible asylum and migration policy requires procedures and return centers outside of Europe, “so that we can reduce the pressure on the EU’s external borders and also prevent deaths in the Mediterranean.” The interior minister reaffirmed the importance of abolishing the so-called “connection criterion.” This states that people can only be deported to countries with which they have a connection. According to Karner, “return hubs” would also be possible, where “rejected asylum seekers or offenders could be taken.” His German counterpart Alexander Dobrindt also supports the “return hubs” outside of Europe.
According to the Danish minister, the processing of asylum applications does not necessarily have to take place within the EU; this is the best way to disrupt the business model of smugglers. He advocates for processing outside the EU, in the controversial return centers (return hubs). He cites reception centers like those in Albania and Rwanda as “good examples” of externalization and one-to-one agreements, “but of course we need to develop our own European model.” There are still differing opinions on this, but more and more EU countries are in favor. The new EU asylum and migration pact is an important step forward, but the instruments are not sufficient.
Brunner: We must engage with Libya
Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) said in an interview with “Politico”: “The fact that Russia is increasing its influence in Libya is our concern, and therefore we must also engage with Libya.” There is a danger that Russia will again use migrants as a weapon against Europe. The leadership in eastern Libya denied entry to the EU migration commissioner and the interior ministers of Italy, Greece, and Malta on Tuesday. The rival eastern Libyan government under Osama Hamad in Benghazi, allied with General Khalifa Haftar, is supported by Russia.
“We support the Danish presidency in being faster,” Brunner stated in Copenhagen. “We need to put migration on the table when negotiating with third countries; that is what I mean by migration diplomacy,” he emphasized. The third countries must see that migration is of “enormous importance” for Europe. The return directive provides the opportunity to establish “return hubs”; that is then “of course the decision of each member state.”
Karner: We must be tougher
France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described controlling migration flows as a priority: People across Europe are demanding the same thing: “We must regain control over a often massive migration that has slipped away from us.” He also calls for stricter regulations for more efficient returns and “innovative solutions.” Karner sees a change in thinking among many of his EU partners, “that we also need to be tougher on a European level.”
At the end of 2022, Austria imposed a Schengen veto (against the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, ed.); according to the minister, this was “a kind of cry for help” due to “enormously high asylum application numbers,” which have also been seen in other countries. This enormous pressure has led many to rethink.
The EU Commission also wants to speed up the fight against illegal migration: It plans to triple the funds for this in the next multiannual EU budget from 2028 to 2034 to 34 billion euros; for Austria, nearly one billion is allocated. Other topics of the ministerial council include the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking, as well as better preparation of the EU for crises. The goal of the ministerial discussion is to set a political direction for further work. There will be no concrete decisions at the informal council on Tuesday.
FPÖ criticizes Karner and Brunner
FPÖ security spokesman NAbg. Gernot Darmann reacted with criticism to the informal meeting of the EU interior ministers: “What Karner and Co. want to sell here once again as a security policy advance is nothing more than a prime example of denial of reality. Because the core error remains: It is still allowed for illegal migrants to come to Europe – and thus also to Austria. If the purported ‘strict asylum policy’ were to work, there should not be a single asylum application in Austria, as migrants pass through safe EU third countries on their way to Austria.” (25.07.2025)
