Parliament and Council negotiators agreed on the final form of five separate EU regulations, establishing how to share the management of asylum and migration flows among member states and what to do in cases of sudden migratory crisis. The rules also regulate how to deal with people arriving at the EU’s external borders, asylum claims processing, and identifying those coming.
After the deal, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, stated: “Today is a truly historic day, as we have delivered on the Migration and Asylum Pact, possibly the most important legislative package of this mandate”.
Metsola noted that Europe will now have a robust legislative framework that will be the same in all Member States. It will function to protect those seeking asylum in a humane and fair approach and will be firm with those who are not eligible while strong with those who exploit the most vulnerable.
Citizens across the Union raised migration as their top concern in the 2019 elections. The constructive pro-European centre has achieved significant success by delivering this package before the start of an election year in Europe.
The new asylum and migration management regulation requires EU countries under migratory pressure to receive mandatory solidarity. Other member states can relocate asylum applicants to their territory or make financial contributions.
Additionally, the regulation outlines new criteria for determining which member state is responsible for examining international protection applications, replacing the previous Dublin rules.
Concerning sudden increases in arrivals, the crisis and force majeure regulation establishes a mechanism to ensure solidarity and measures to support member states facing an exceptional influx of third-country nationals leading to the collapse of the national asylum system.
The rules also cover the instrumentalisation of migrants, i.e. when third countries or hostile non-state actors use migrants to destabilise the EU and foresee a possible temporary derogation from the standard asylum procedures.
Under the new screening regulation, individuals who do not meet the requirements to enter the European Union will be subject to a pre-entry screening process. This process will include identification, gathering biometric data, and health and security checks and may last up to seven days. The screening process will consider the specific needs of children, and each member state will have an independent monitoring mechanism to ensure that fundamental rights are respected.
The asylum procedures regulation also sets up a standard process across the EU to grant and withdraw international protection. This process replaces several national procedures. The aim is to speed up the processing of asylum claims, with a decision made within six months for a first decision. For manifestly unfounded or inadmissible claims, shorter time limits will be imposed. This process will be implemented at the EU borders.
Finally, the reform of Eurodac aims to identify those arriving at EU territory more effectively, adding facial images to fingerprints, including for children from six years old. Authorities can record if someone could present a security threat if the person is violent or unlawfully armed. The Parliament and Council must formally adopt the provisional agreement before it can become law. The co-legislators committed to adopting the reform of EU migration and asylum rules before the 2024 European elections.
EPP: A historic deal
“After years of political deadlock, we have today agreed on a common European response to the challenge of migration. The new rules will allow us to regain control over our external borders and reduce the migration pressure towards the EU. This would not have been possible without the EPP Group. We have been a constructive and unifying force throughout the negotiations,” explained EPP Group MEP Tomas Tobé, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on the migration management law.
His statement comes after negotiators from the European Parliament and Member States agreed on the Migration Pact, a set of five new laws to better control migration flows to Europe.
“The Pact intends to regain control over the EU’s borders. It is up to EU governments, not smugglers, to decide who enters Europe. For that, each part of the Migration Pact is equally important. New Eurodac rules will allow for proper identification, helping to prevent irregular migration and unauthorised movement between EU countries. Meanwhile, new harmonised rules on security checks will effectively screen all irregular arrivals at the external EU borders. At the external borders, a clear distinction will be made between those who are in need of international protection and those who are not. Those who represent a threat to security and those whose applications for international protection have low chances of success will have to go through a border procedure, ensuring support for those in real need of protection and the efficient return of those who are not,” said Jeroen Lenaers MEP, EPP Group Spokesman on Home Affairs.
”No EU country can confront the migration challenge alone. That is why we have improved the rules on the responsibility for the examination of asylum applications, and we are setting up a permanent solidarity mechanism that provides real and meaningful solidarity and allows for flexible contributions from EU governments, recognising the gravity of our shared responsibility,” Tobé added.
“The migration crisis is a common European challenge that we must shoulder together responsibly. Let’s now urgently implement these new laws. We need to ensure that our common European migration and asylum system can function properly at all times and stand ready for whatever challenges the future holds,” concluded Lenaers.
S&D Group: The basis for a system of mandatory solidarity
After a series of difficult negotiations that have spanned several hours, co-legislators have worked through the night to reach common ground across five pieces of legislation that make up the new Pact on Migration and Asylum first presented by the Commission in 2020. The Pact includes a new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, a new Screening Regulation, a new Crisis and Force Majeure Regulation, revised rules under the Asylum Procedures Regulation, and a revised Eurodac Regulation.
The S&D Group led the negotiations on behalf of the European Parliament on the crisis regulation and on the screening regulation. Juan Fernando López Aguilar, MEP, negotiated new rules, procedures and mechanisms to be triggered in crisis situations and Birgit Sippel, MEP, led negotiations on new rules to ensure everyone arriving in the EU seeking protection will undergo identity, security, health, and vulnerability checks. The S&D shadow negotiators were Pietro Bartolo, MEP, for the Asylum Migration Management Regulation, Sylvie Guillaume, MEP, for the Asylum Procedures Regulation, and Isabel Santos, MEP, for the Eurodac Regulation.
“For several years, we have called for a more reliable and more European migration and asylum system that stands by our values of international protection, upholds the right to asylum and that is based on solidarity between member states. Everyone agrees that the status quo is unsustainable. Thanks to a window of opportunity opened under the Spanish Presidency and a dedicated team of S&D negotiators, today’s breakthrough signals that the EU is capable of reaching workable and common solutions on migration and asylum. That in itself is a big step in the right direction,” Iratxe García, S&D Group President, said:
“We now have the basis for a system of mandatory solidarity for member states to share responsibility for people coming to the EU seeking protection. When this is signed into EU law, our collective responsibility is then to make sure that member states hold true to their solidarity commitments made under this new system. As well as solidarity between member states, we are also more committed than ever to show solidarity with those in need of international protection. With the new Pact we are able to protect the human dignity of people coming to Europe in despair, to respect their rights and to respect international law.”
“The agreement was years in the making and as result there has been a lot of pressure surrounding these negotiations in recent weeks. It was hard work and took a lot of determination of the negotiators from both the Parliament and the Spanish Presidency. Even more hard work and determination will be needed to implement the new rules on the ground and to make sure that fundamental rights, including the right to asylum, are fully respected,” said Gaby Bischoff, S&D Vice President for Migration.
The Left: Migration deal – a day of mourning for human rights in Europe
The deal on the New Pact on Migration marks the death of the individual right to asylum in the EU, says the Left.
“The European Commission and Council’s rush to strike the agreement reached this morning comes at the expense of the dismantling of human rights in Europe. The New Pact is a bow to right-wing extremists and fascists of Europe. The tightening of asylum laws was tailored to the demands of the Melonis and Orbans. The Migration Pact will not stop forced migration due to persecution, war and poverty”.
The Left in the European Parliament views the recent deal as a historic moment but for all the wrong reasons. The Group believes this agreement will have long-lasting consequences for the rights of people on the move. The EU holds human rights standards as its core values, established after the Second World War. However, this agreement signifies a turning point because it legalises current rights violations related to migration, says the Left.
The legislation approved has made arbitrary detention of people on the move, including children and families, a norm, and it has led to an increase in racial profiling. The Council introduced the concept of the so-called “instrumentalisation” of migration in the crisis regulation. This questionable concept permits the suspension of practically all rights of people seeking protection.
“Today is a dramatic day for the rights of people seeking protection in Europe: a right-wing populist dream-come-true. In the negotiations on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the European Parliament became the doormat of the member states. The agreement, which is largely based on the Council mandate, is the most massive tightening of European asylum and migration law since the EU was founded. In the future, asylum seekers will be detained at the border, including families with children of all ages. From there, it will then be possible to deport people directly, if possible, to so-called “safe third countries”. This means that the individual right to asylum is de facto dead,” Left MEP Cornelia Ernst (Die Linke, Germany) commented on the deal.
“A genuine reform of Dublin has failed. Instead of relocating people, the member states can finance projects in third countries or provide funds for border surveillance, such as barbed wire within the EU. This is then called “solidarity” – it is sheer mockery. The Council has managed to get its way and included the concept of the so-called “instrumentalisation” of migration in the crisis regulation. This questionable concept is a blank check for the suspension of practically all rights of people seeking protection and a carte blanche for pushbacks. The member states will abuse this in order to make the exception the rule. A dark day. Once again, the EU will not solve the challenges of European migration policy. On the contrary, the new reform legalises years of violations of EU asylum law by the member states. This will severely damage the rule of law in Europe,” she added.
“This is not our pact. It is a sad day for all of us who have worked for an EU asylum policy built on respect for international law and commitments, on dignity and solidarity. In the face of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU showed that solidarity with those seeking protection is possible. But instead of building on that experience, the deal just struck will institutionalise and worsen the most repressive practices: mass detention, pushbacks, and cruelty at the borders. That the EU institutions now loudly celebrate such a deal, that is rejected by all those actually working on the ground – and welcomed by the far right – is a farce,” said Left MEP Malin Björk (Vänsterpartiet, Sweden).
