Main results

Resilience of critical entities

Home affairs ministers discussed the proposal for a directive to enhance the resilience of critical entities providing essential services, such as health, transport or drinking water, in the EU. The ministers shared their preliminary views on the Commission proposal presented in December 2020.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has once again brought to the forefront the interdependence of our societies. Only by working together can we ensure that the critical services for the day to day lives of our citizens are resilient and ready to withstand any future challenges, whether these are a future pandemic a terrorist attack or the effects of climate change. Today, ministers showed their commitment to put this will into concrete action by giving the Presidency a mandate to continue work on this important directive.

Eduardo Cabrita, Portuguese Minister for Home Affairs

Ministers broadly shared the view that an update of the legislation in this field is necessary, in particular to increase the number of sectors covered. A number of member states also  highlighted the importance of widening the scope from the protection of infrastructure to the broader concept of resilience of entities, including the recovery capacity and business continuity.  

During the discussion there was broad consensus on the need to strengthen the link between cyber and physical security and to ensure the complementarity between this proposal and the draft directive on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the EU, also currently under discussion. In addition, many member states emphasised that the need to set up minimal common rules at EU level had to be balanced with the member states primary responsibility over national security. Finally, some member states also highlighted the need to find the right balance between a common approach and a certain flexibility which takes into account the differences in national structures.

Work on this proposal will now continue at technical level.

• New directive to enhance the resilience of critical entities (Presidency discussion paper)
• New directive to enhance the resilience of critical entities (European Commission)

Asylum and migration pact

- Cooperation with third countries on return and readmission

Ministers discussed external aspects of migration, on the basis of a Commission communication on enhancing cooperation on return and readmission and the assessment of third countries’ cooperation on readmission as part of the new visa code mechanism.

Ministers reiterated the importance of effective return and readmission cooperation as part of the broader engagement with third countries on migration. They agreed that work in this area should rapidly continue with a view to improving cooperation with key countries as quickly as possible. The Presidency will now take work forward at technical level on the basis of this discussion.

- Migration and asylum pact

The presidency updated ministers on the state of play of the negotiations regarding the migration and asylum pact. Work is ongoing on the wide range of issues covered by the pact at different levels.

At political level, the Presidency indicated its intention to concentrate on some of the main political issues identified in previous discussions, including the external dimension, effective management of the EU external borders and solidarity and responsibility. At technical level, work is advancing on the instruments linked to the internal dimension of migration. On some of these instruments discussions are already at an advanced stage, in particular the EU asylum agency and the blue card directive.

• New pact on migration and asylum (European Commission)
• EU migration policy (background information)
• EU asylum reform (background information)

EU-North African countries cooperation

Ministers exchanged views on enhancing cooperation between the EU and North African countries, on the basis of a Presidency proposal to launch a political dialogue on justice and home affairs with countries in the region, focused on enhancing operational cooperation. The Presidency proposes to include Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and in a second stage countries in the African West Coast and the Sahel region.

A majority of member states took the floor to support the initiative, showing a broad consensus in favour of the Presidency's initiative. Several member states pointed at the need for coherence with the existing policy framework and cooperation formats such as sectoral dialogues. On the topics, a majority of member states called to concentrate on migration, others also mentioned security (including counter-terrorism and organised crime). The Presidency announced its intention to hold a ministerial meeting with North African countries in May.