EU leaders to focus on migration, Poland to point to its 'weaponisation'

By Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Migration will dominate the European Union summit on Thursday with Poland calling for an EU stance against Russia and Belarus using migrants as a weapon against the EU and others, urging sharper laws on sending back irregular arrivals, diplomats said.

Other topics on the agenda include leaders reiterating their unwavering support for Ukraine in its defence against Russia's invasion and a call for a ceasefire and de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, EU diplomats said.

But the hottest discussion will be on how to deal with irregular migrants arriving in the 27-nation bloc by land from the east and by sea from the south in what most EU governments see as a political and security risk that is fuelling the rise of populist and far-right parties and influencing elections.

"Migration will ... be a major point of discussion," the chairman of the meeting Charles Michel wrote in an invitation letter to EU leaders.

"We will ... focus on concrete measures to prevent irregular migration including strengthened control of our external borders, enhanced partnerships and reinforced return policies," he wrote.

Irregular migrants arriving in Europe last year numbered less than a third of the 1 million seen during the migration crisis in 2015. In the first nine months of this year the number fell even more to 166,000, data from the EU's Frontex border agency showed.

But the number of people arriving at the EU's border with Belarus surged 192% year-on-year in January-September to 13,195 and the number of arrivals in the Spanish Canary islands off the western coast of Africa doubled to 30,616, Frontex said.

Diplomats noted that while the irregular arrivals were falling, public perception was different, fuelled by outrage over incidents like the Solingen knife attack by an Islamic state perpetrator in Germany in August.

MIGRATION IS EUROPE'S TOP POLITICAL ISSUE

Migration has become one of the top political priorities in most EU countries, a senior EU diplomat said, adding that right wing politicians framed events like Solingen as a failure of the immigration debate.

"It's populist parties using fear to turn this issue into something that helps them, and the result is that in order to battle this perception, you actually need to do something," the senior EU diplomat said.

Germany, wary of a public opinion backlash against irregular migration ahead of elections next September, has introduced border controls with all its neighbours, suspending the freedom of the passport-free Schengen zone. France, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Italy and Slovenia have also introduced border checks.

Poland, which has presidential elections due in May, wants to temporarily suspend asylum rights for migrants crossing over from Russia-ally Belarus, in a move many see as a violation of the EU's charter of fundamental rights.

Warsaw says it draws its inspiration from Finland, which, faced with migrants pushed across the border from Russia, suspended such asylum rights in July.

The EU agreed in May on a new set of rules and processes for handling migration, called the Migration Pact, but its full implementation is not due until mid-2026, leaving the bloc in a complicated transition period.

Further complicating matters, the Migration Pact has no instruments to deal with the "weaponisation" of migration by countries like Russia, nor does it solve the thorny issue of sending back migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected.

In a policy U-turn from previous years, the European Commission said this week it would propose that migrants who have no right to stay in the EU be sent to "return hubs" in countries outside the EU, with which the bloc will strike deals.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski; Editing by Sonali Paul)