The reform includes faster checks on illegal arrivals, the creation of border detention centres, faster deportations of those refused asylum and a solidarity mechanism to ease the burden on southern European countries, which receive large flows of migrants.
After leading the long negotiations, Spain, which holds the EU presidency this six months, announced on the X social network: “A political agreement has been reached on the EU’s new migration and asylum pact five files.”
Mr Schin said: “It’s come a long way […]. But we succeeded. Europe is finally taking action on migration.”
EC President Ursula von der Leyen added that migration is a common European challenge and that today’s agreement will pave the way for tackling it together.
Germany welcomed an EU deal to reform the bloc’s migration laws and said it would ensure the new asylum system was implemented fairly and orderly.
“An agreement on a common European asylum system was urgently needed and long overdue,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi hailed the deal as a major success on Wednesday and said it meant the EU’s so-called frontline countries, to which migrants flock first, “will no longer feel alone.”
“The approval of the Pact is a great success for Europe and Italy (…) which has always played a key role in the adoption of a balanced solution so that the EU’s frontline countries, which are under extreme migration pressure, no longer feel alone,” he said in a statement.
The agreement has yet to be officially approved by the European Council and the European Parliament representing the bloc’s 27 countries.
The issue of migration has become more politically sensitive in Europe in recent years, with the rise of nationalist anti-immigration parties in several member states, including Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The negotiations sought an agreement that would work and could be adopted before the end of the mandate of the current composition of the EP in June 2024.
But dozens of migrant charities, including Amnesty International, Oxfam, Caritas and Save the Children, are criticizing the changes, saying in an open letter that the package will impoverish a dysfunctional and cruel system.
Faster checks
The overhaul, which builds on a proposal made three years ago, will not change the current principle that the first EU country an asylum seeker lands in is responsible for their case.
However, in order to help countries that receive large numbers of migrants, such as Italy, Greece and Malta, there will be a mandatory solidarity mechanism.
This will mean the transfer of a certain part of migrants to other EU countries. If any member of the bloc refuses to accept migrants, it should make a financial or material contribution to the receiving countries.
The planned reform also aims to speed up the vetting of asylum seekers, so that those who cannot be granted asylum can be quickly sent back to their countries of origin or transit.
This procedure, which will require the establishment of detention centers at the borders, will apply to illegal migrants arriving from countries with more than 80% of their citizens. applications for asylum are rejected.
The EP received guarantees that families with small children will have adequate conditions and that the rights of migrants will be monitored and free legal advice will be provided, MEP Fabienne Keller told AFP.
It also proposes a response to those cases when the flow of incoming migrants increases dramatically, as in 2015-2016, when over 2 million arrived in the EU. refugees, primarily from war-torn Syria. In such cases, protection measures for asylum seekers could be limited.
Currently, more illegal migrants and asylum seekers are coming back to the EU. During the first 11 months of this year, the EU border and coast guard agency “Frontex” registered more than 355 thousand. cases of illegal border crossing and entry into the bloc are 17 percent. increase
This year, the number of asylum seekers may exceed one million, according to the EU Asylum Agency.
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2024-07-29 15:53:09
