EU, Parliament approves new rules for migrants: stricter controls and mandatory solidarity between states

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In a particularly heated parliamentary session, the European Parliament gave its approval to the migration package, a set of measures with which the European Union wants to guarantee greater solidarity between member countries in managing immigration. Overall, the People’s Party, Socialists and Liberals supported the compromise on the table. Loud protests once morest the reform came from human rights activists in the audience.

“It’s a huge step for Europe,” the president of the Commission said in a press conference Ursula von der Leyen.

Parliamentary approval came later over three years of community negotiations. «Worried by those who voted once morest? I would have been worried if the Pact had not passed”, she commented Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Parliament. In fact, the centrist parties hope with the approval of the reform to take away votes from the far right in the next elections.

The package of regulations and directives – which were definitively approved today 10 April one by one by Parliament – includes stricter controls on the arrival of migrants in the community territory; reception centers close to the external borders of the Union to quickly repatriate those who are not entitled to asylum; it’s a mandatory solidarity mechanism between member states – countries will be able to choose whether to welcome migrants or guarantee funding.

The current rule according to which the first country of arrival is responsible for the asylum application will be maintained, with specific adjustments. To accommodate some Eastern countries, once morest compulsory reception, solidarity will translate into economic aid (20 thousand euros for each migrant). Nonetheless, the Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto defined the package approved today by the European Parliament as “a green light for illegal immigration”.