EU's migration Zeitenwende must include all, no opt-outs, Danish minister says

Euractiv

5 days ago

Kaare Dybvad, Danish minister for integration and immigration, hopes Denmark's Council presidency can push returns forward, downplaying Dutch hopes of getting their own opt-out in an interview with Euractiv.
Since Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen seized power in 2019, Dybvad has served as minister in her different governments and now holds the migration portfolio.
As such, for the next half a year, Dybvad will sit at the end of the table when EU migration ministers meet.
On Tuesday, he hosted his European counterparts and EU migration chief Magnus Brunner for an informal gathering in Copenhagen.
What follows is an edited transcript.
Denmark has been a vocal backer of 'return hubs.' What exactly is your position, and how widely supported is this idea across the EU?
Dybvad: We support the return hubs as a concept. I'd say most European countries, at least the ones I've heard from, support return hubs in some form. Of course, there are concerns – especially about safeguarding human rights and monitoring conditions. But broadly, this approach is seen as a way to ensure that more people are actually returned.
Is there any progress on where these return hubs might be located, or which third countries are in play?
That's tricky. You don't get the countries before you get the deal. If you want these arrangements, you need to negotiate first – not announce names in advance. But I don't see it as harder than other agreements already out there. The Italian-Albanian deal, for example, shows it can be done. If the EU negotiates as a bloc, it has leverage.
More broadly, there seems to be a shift across the EU toward stricter migration policy. Do you see this as sudden or something more gradual?
It's been a gradual change. When I started three years ago, Austria was basically the only one supporting our line. Now that's changing – and the biggest shift came from Germany. Their new government openly supports abolishing the connection criteria. That's key to making third-country arrangements legal under EU law.
Denmark has had an opt-out on justice and home affairs since the 90s – what role does that play in Denmark's position as a broker on migration issues?
I've had that conversation with the former Dutch asylum minister, Marjolein Faber. She was very interested in getting one for the Netherlands. But honestly, I don't think the opt-out does a lot. There are areas where we don't vote or get affected by decisions, sure. But when it comes to real migration outcomes – lower numbers, better control – it's more about efficient return policy and coordination with neighbours. That matters more than any opt-out.
At the European level, in the Council with the EU countries, how do you see Danish migration policy affecting other countries?
I don't know if our migration policy directly affects other countries, but I think that we proved that you can, from a centre-left perspective, handle these problems, that you can get democratic control of migration policy. And I hope, and this is also what some of my colleagues say, that this inspires others to try to get better control, and to do it from a standardised and left position instead of letting far-right parties run with this agenda.
Do you see other centre-left parties, your colleagues in S&D, adopting your stance on this? Aren't you pretty alone on the centre-left?
I'm seeing a lot of centre-left parties, social democratic parties, and governments that are huge in this policy. In Austria, you have the SPÖ; in Germany, you have the SPD in government with the Christian Democrats. In Belgium, the Flemish social democrats are part of the coalition government. In Sweden, you'll see the opposition social democrats now also changing their policy.
So I think I see it in quite a lot of places right now. And of course, many of the Central and Eastern European social democrats also have quite a strict policy. The Maltese government, which is social democratic, has also introduced some very strict migration policies.
There are a lot of sovereign democrats and governments in Europe right now implementing some of the policies that we have tried to implement.
But in the European Parliament, the Socialists are led by the Spanish delegation, one of the biggest, and far from your line. How do you get them on board?
That's going to be a discussion in the coming half year, of course, from our side. I hope people will be reasonable, and that at least the delegations from different countries will look at their own countries and see what is working, and how we're actually implementing policy at the domestic level.
And I'd say for the Spanish side – if I could get some kind of agreement like Spain has with Morocco, we would very much like that. I think there are some very effective migration policies that have been introduced by the Sánchez government – and at least from my side as a minister, I'm very jealous of that.
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