Five European governments meet in Copenhagen on return centres outside the Union

A new development compared with the morning edition. In Copenhagen, at the Christiansborg palace, representatives of five European Union governments met on Friday, September 4 to discuss concrete steps towards an agreement with a third country on a model of return centres located outside European borders. The group is made up of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece; the European Commission is taking part as an observer. This is stated by the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration, which organised the meeting institutionally.

At the end of the talks, Danish minister Morten Bødskov stated that Copenhagen aims to transfer the first foreigners to a partner country by the end of 2027. The statement is reported by ANSA and the meeting is also reconstructed by la Repubblica, which reports the presence of ministers from all five countries.

The point left unsaid

The name of the country or countries with which the agreement should be signed has not been made public. ANSA explicitly writes that Bødskov did not name them and reports Uganda and Rwanda as names circulated through leaks; la Repubblica cites the same two hypotheses. The paper reports them for what they are: journalistic reconstructions not confirmed by the governments involved, not an official list.

This is a reticence that carries weight, because the feasibility of such a mechanism depends almost entirely on the counterpart: on its legal system, on the guarantees it offers, on the stability of the bilateral relationship. As long as the partner remains unnamed, the announcement concerns a political intention and a timetable, not a verifiable mechanism.

Five countries, not twenty-seven

The other substantive element is the geometry. This is not a decision by the European Union, but an initiative by five member states acting together, with the Commission present as an observer — a position that, by definition, implies neither adhesion nor ownership of the negotiation. The restricted format is the political signal: a group of governments moving forward on a front where the twenty-seven do not have a common operational position.

The five cover very different migration profiles: an external Mediterranean border country such as Greece, three destination countries from central-northern Europe, and Denmark, which is hosting and promoting the initiative.

What we do not know

We do not know the legal content of the model discussed: who would be transferred, on the basis of what measure, with what avenues of appeal and under whose responsibility. We do not know whether a draft agreement already exists, nor whether a third country has given formal availability. The excerpts do not indicate what position the European Commission expressed at the meeting, nor whether and when the matter will reach the Council.

Finally, we do not know whether other member states might join the five. The only dated element is the one indicated by the Danish minister: the end of 2027 as the horizon for the first transfers. This is a goal stated by only one of the five governments, with no common commitment to the same date apparent from the summit’s proceedings.