Denmark is prepared to face down the European Parliament over tougher migration rules, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told lawmakers as her country takes up the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU.
“We have to lower the influx of migrants to Europe,” she said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Frederiksen has built a reputation as the black sheep of European social democrats because she often sides with the right in pushing forward tougher rules on asylum and border checks.
“What has been mainstream among our populations for quite many years is now mainstream for many of us politicians as well, finally,” she said. “Maybe not in Parliament, but gladly, and I am really happy about that, in the European Council,” where several leaders of EU countries leaders are determined to address migration problems.
In pushing for a tougher approach Frederiksen finds herself on the same side as right-wing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and center-right Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Parliament ― the bloc’s only directly elected body ― is more divided than Europe’s governments, however. With a right-wing bloc pushing for stricter rules, and a center-left bloc opposing them, it will be complicated for the house’s centrist political families to come to any agreement on legislation.
Following the EU election in June last year, which saw a surge in support to right-wing and far-right parties elected on an anti-migration base, the European Commission announced it would propose rules that would increase deportations, as well as a revision of the safe third country concept to allow for easier returns of migrants to countries they are not originally from. It would also make it easier for countries to set up so-called return hubs.
Tough priority
Migration is one of the topics where the center-right European People’s Party could bypass its traditional mainstream allies and use the support of right-wing and far-right groups.
“It is challenging Europe, affecting people’s lives, and the cohesion of our societies,” Frederiksen said. “We saw it very clearly in the European Parliament elections last year. Migration was a tough priority for many Europeans, including myself.”
Denmark, whose EU presidency will run until the end of 2025, will prioritize the proposals the Commission has already set out, and also “provide a much more effective response to Russia,” which, Frederiksen said, was “using migration as a weapon at our eastern borders.”
“Our citizens expect us politicians to find new solutions with a good reason and European citizens have a right to feel safe in their own countries,” she said. “That is why we need to strengthen our external borders.”
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