You’re reading Rapporteur on Friday 5 June. This is Nicoletta Ionta, with Eddy Wax in Brussels.

Need-to-knows:

🟢 Countries hunt for hosts of controversial return hubs

🟢 France and Germany push EU enlargement overhaul

🟢 Brussels hints at new China trade weapon

On the roundabout: The Verhofstadt dynasty continues

What was once a political taboo is rapidly becoming mainstream. Following this week’s tentative agreement between Parliament and the Council on new deportation rules, EU countries are now racing to establish migrant ‘return hubs’.

On the sidelines of ministerial meetings, in breakout working groups, over breakfast and late-night discussions, ministers are grappling with largely technical questions: where, how and when to build facilities that would host rejected asylum seekers outside the EU while awaiting deportation.

Some governments hope to move from talk to naming host countries by the autumn. The Commission, which has refused to lead the talks, remains on the sidelines.

The Nordics have been coordinating their own efforts, while another coalition – comprising the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Greece – has spent months exploring possible models and locations. A separate group of countries is also examining a pilot reception-centre scheme, according to diplomats and ministers.

"We have to bring [this] to the table in the fall, to see whether there is any possibility to step out with the names of the countries," Dutch Migration Minister Bart van den Brink told me in an interview in Luxembourg. Asked whether some form of agreement could be reached by the end of the year, he replied: "That's the ambition."

The concept remains deliberately flexible, and many of the details will ultimately depend on the deal struck with whichever country agrees to host the facilities, several diplomats and officials said.

According to the Dutch minister, the proposed facilities would not be detention centres but places where migrants could stay temporarily before being returned to their country of origin or elsewhere. “It will be a place where they can stay for a time that they want, and then, they can go.”

Other governments appear to be working with similarly broad concepts.

"The whole general idea is to set up those hubs in areas, maybe in Africa or Asia and beyond," Nicholas A. Ioannides, Cyprus' deputy minister for migration, told reporters this week.

For Sweden, which is coordinating the search for a partner country among the Nordics, the emphasis is likely to be on nationality.

"It would be wise to start by addressing a specific group of people, like a certain nationality," Johan Forssell, the Swedish migration minister, told me. "That would make sense in order for it to work. And, of course, that would also have consequences for where such a hub would be located."

Despite the growing interest, even some of the scheme's strongest advocates acknowledge that key questions remain unresolved. "I would like to have an agreement tomorrow," Forssell said. "But we are not there yet."

France and Germany rethink enlargement

EU leaders gather in Montenegro today for a Western Balkans summit, where the Adriatic nation is expected to be held up as the region’s model candidate. Until recently, leaders were expected to arrive bearing little more than cheaper roaming charges to keep Balkans laggards dreaming of a Brussels future.

France and Germany have now brought fresh ideas to the table. A Franco-German non-paper prepared for the summit proposes overhauling the cumbersome accession process faced by countries such as Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia by offering more tangible benefits before full membership.

The paper fleshes out the brief references Friedrich Merz made to Moldova and the Western Balkans when he floated the idea of ‘associate membership’ for Ukraine. Read more details in Eddy’s story.

One notable omission, however, is any political commitment to help Montenegro clear what may be its biggest hurdle: securing unanimous backing from all 27 states. “What I expected after the Merz letter was just assurance that they will get Montenegro through,” said Milan Nič, senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations.

“There is a clear momentum on enlargement,” António Costa told Rapporteur. “Recent proposals show that there is a new willingness to simplify and accelerate the process.”

New China trade tool?

The European Commission suggested it’s developing a new trade defence tool against China, in a move that threatens to further strain ties between Brussels and Beijing, my colleague Thomas Moller-Nielsen reports.

Denis Redonnet, the EU executive’s chief trade enforcement officer, said on Thursday that the “very, very intense distortions” created by China’s economy meant that “traditional trade instruments will inevitably, at some point, reach their limit.” The remarks came as Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, met Li Chenggang, China's vice-minister for commerce, on the sidelines of an OECD trade ministers’ meeting in Paris.

“My objective is a practical, result-oriented approach to addressing our concerns – not escalation,” Šefčovič said ahead of a highly anticipated speech due today. “But any path forward needs to be meaningful and sustainable.” Read Thomas’ full story.

Push to tighten Ukraine protection rules

Thursday’s talks on extending the EU’s temporary protection scheme for Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion revealed broad support for prolonging the arrangement beyond next year, but also growing backing among some countries for restrictions, including excluding Ukrainian men of military age, according to three diplomats.

The scheme, which has provided protection to more than four million people, is currently set to expire next year. France has emerged as the most vocal opponent of any attempt to limit eligibility, the diplomats said.

The debate over restricting access for Ukrainian men of fighting age was first reported by Euractiv on Monday. Magnus Brunner, the EU’s migration commissioner, said on Thursday that a proposal to extend the scheme is expected in the coming weeks.

Scandal-hit EESC calls in Ombudsman

Staff at the European Economic and Social Committee lodged an official complaint with the EU Ombudsman over efforts by the body’s leadership to identify an anti-corruption whistleblower.

Three trade unions said the legal basis used to investigate the source of anonymous letters alleging misconduct by the committee’s secretary general “has no statutory basis that we know of.”

“This combination – broad investigative powers with unclear legal grounding – is not acceptable,” they wrote in an all-staff email on Thursday. The unions accused the EESC of focusing on identifying the source of the allegations rather than addressing their substance.

In a further twist, the committee itself is preparing an evaluation of the EU’s whistleblower protection directive.

Pahlavi in fresh stand-off with Parliament

Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s former shah, is at odds with the European Parliament over a potential visit, objecting to plans for him to appear alongside other Iranian opposition figures and representatives of religious minorities.

Sources told Rapporteur that after declining an earlier invitation because of a scheduling conflict, Pahlavi approached Parliament last month and offered to meet members of the foreign affairs committee on 24 or 25 June.

But coordinators from the political groups agreed that any appearance should include representatives of other Iranian opposition movements and religious minorities, including Balochi and Baha’i figures. According to the sources, Pahlavi responded that he was not interested in attending unless the other participants were of “similar weight and coherence.”

Here are three new stories from Euractiv:

• Middle East tensions deepen EU business gloom

• Opinion: North Africa should not power Europe

• Afghan girls driven into underground classrooms