“Together for Europe’s recovery” , Date: 2020.07.01, format: Report, area: Authority , Germany holds the European Council Presidency

As of 1 July 2020, Germany has assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU). Germany will be coordinating the work of the EU Council of Ministers for six months under the motto “Together for Europe’s recovery”. The main task during this time will be to plan the agenda of the sessions of the Council of Ministers, as well as drafting compromise papers between the different Member States. This will enable Germany to establish its own points of emphasis and push forward legislative projects.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is involved in the European Council Presidency with its key areas in a number of ways, as the BAMF’s Vice President Andrea Schumacher explains:

Source: BAMF

"Firstly, the BAMF supports the Federal Ministry of the Interior with its specialist knowledge and expertise in performing the tasks during the Council Presidency, whilst at the same time incorporating its operational perspective. Specialist support in the context of European legislation plays an important role here, as it also does with the implementation of events in a migration context.

Secondly, the BAMF exchanges information with other European migration authorities during its own events, and is also planning meetings between practitioners, as well as the annual conference of the European Migration Network in October, which will be held as an official Council Presidency conference"

The BAMF would like to take advantage of the German Council Presidency by further enhancing Germany’s position on migration-related topics in the networks in which it is represented, such as the European Migration Network (EMN) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).

Digitalising the asylum procedure

One of the key focus areas of the BAMF within the German European Council Presidency is the digitalisation of asylum procedures. The BAMF’s Vice-President had the following to say on this:

"With the digitalisation of asylum, the Federal Office is relying on innovative technologies such as blockchain, and aims to push forward European cooperation in digitalisation and coordinate joint European activities.

In collaboration with various European countries, we are working on opportunities for a joint speech recognition process in order to benefit from the strengths of the different practices used in analysis across Europe. The alignment of Arabic name spelling in Europe is furthermore of particular concern to us. Possibilities to use and provide a web-based transcription service are being worked on together with the European partners. This service is to be able to transcribe Arabic names into a consistent Latin script, thus contributing to high data quality in the various migration databases.“

Deradicalisation

Another key focus area is deradicalisation. Via the Advice Centre on Radicalisation, the BAMF has proven itself to be an internationally- and nationally-recognised central player and pioneer, as well as a nationwide interchange, for deradicalisation work in the context of Islamism in Germany.

As part of the German European Council Presidency, the Federal Office will be holding the conference entitled “Nipping extremism in the bud! – Preventing and repressing extremism combining the local, national and European levels” to be held in December, with which it aims to further bring together existing Europe-wide expertise on the fight against extremism, enhance the exchange of information between practitioners, and support EU-wide networking between prevention and deradicalisation work.

The Federal Office’s Research Centre supports the Advice Centre with specialist knowledge and by coordinating a large network of researchers on the topic of deradicalisation.

Voluntary return

The BAMF is working together with its European partner authorities on another key issue – namely voluntary return and reintegration – to establish transitional measures and practical solutions to relaunch support measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Together with our European partners, we are aiming to develop harmonised approaches in the acquisition of replacement passports in order to lay the foundation for cooperation with the countries of origin”, says Andrea Schumacher, who adds: “As a guide in the entire return process, we furthermore act as a central player in returns. We have also become an important provider of information for authorities, non-governmental organisations, return counselling centres, prospective returnees and the public when it comes to counselling and support opportunities for voluntary departure.” 

Source: BAMF

The Federal Office is an internationally important, recognised dialogue partner on all matters related to migration, asylum and integration.

As a centre of excellence for migration and asylum, the Office contributes operational expertise to the discussions on the Common European Asylum System, and as the German contact point plays an active role in the European Migration Network.

The international expertise of the Federal Office is also of importance with regard to the immigration of specialists, in humanitarian reception, as well as in managing the EU’s Funds:  

"We rely at all times on a regular exchange and on cooperation with our European partners and other stakeholders, and would like to take on an active role at operational level in the context of the European Council Presidency," emphasises Veronika Held, head of the “Migration policy, developments in European law, European Migration Network” division at the BAMF.

This division coordinates all the activities related to the German European Council Presidency in the Federal Office.