The European Union reached agreement early on Wednesday on new rules designed to share out the cost and work of hosting migrants more evenly and to limit the numbers of people coming in.
Representatives of the European Parliament and of EU governments reached an accord after all-night talks on EU laws collectively called the New Pact on Migration and Asylum that should take effect next year.
The laws cover screening irregular migrants when they arrive in the European Union, procedures for handling asylum applications, rules on determining which EU country is responsible for handling applications and ways to handle crises.
Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, said on Wednesday on social media platform X that : “The EU reached a landmark agreement on a new set of rules to manage migration and asylum,” she said.
The European Commission proposed the New Pact on Migration and Asylum in September 2020 to improve procedures and reach an agreement on sharing responsibility fairly among member states and acting in solidarity when dealing with migration flows. Parliament endorsed its key mandates in April 2023.
The provisional agreement needs to be formally adopted by Parliament and Council before it can become law. The co-legislators are committed to adopting the reform of EU migration and asylum rules before the 2024 European elections.
On Wednesday, MEPs and national governments reached a long-sought agreement to revamp the EU’s asylum and migration legislation.
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, the processing of asylum claims, and the identification of those arriving.
Europe will now get a robust legislative framework that is the same in all Member States. That functions and that protects, an approach that is humane and fair with those seeking protection, that is firm with those who are not eligible, and that is strong with those who exploit the most vulnerable.
The five laws contained in the New Pact are:
· The Screening Regulation, which envisions a pre-entry procedure to swiftly examine an asylum seeker’s profile and collect basic information such as nationality, age, fingerprints and facial image. Health and security checks will also be carried out.
· The amended Eurodac Regulation, which updates the Eurodac, the large-scale database that will store the biometric evidence collected during the screening process. The database will shift from counting applications to counting applicants to prevent multiple claims under the same name.
· The amended Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR), which sets two possible steps for asylum seekers: a fast-tracked border procedure, meant to last a maximum of 12 weeks, and the traditional asylum procedure, which is lengthier and can take up several months before a definite conclusion.
· The Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR), which establishes a system of “mandatory solidarity” that will be triggered when one or more member states come under “migratory pressure.” The system will offer countries three options to help out: relocate a certain number of asylum seekers, pay a contribution for each claimant they refuse to relocate, and finance operational support.
· The Crisis Regulation, which foresees exceptional rules that will apply only when the bloc’s asylum system is threatened by a sudden and massive arrival of refugees, as was the case during the 2015-2016 migration crisis, or by a situation of force majeure, like the COVID-19 pandemic. In these circumstances, national authorities will be allowed to apply tougher measures, including longer detention periods.
Migration was the number one concern raised by citizens across the Union in the elections 2019. Delivering on this package before the end of the year is a huge success for the constructive pro-European centre ahead of the start of an election year in Europe.”
The new asylum and migration management regulation foresees mandatory solidarity for EU countries recognised as being under migratory pressure, allowing other member states to choose between relocating asylum applicants to their territory and making financial contributions. The text also determines new criteria according to which a member state is responsible for examining international protection applications (ex-Dublin rules).
To respond to 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 instrumentalisation of migrants, i.e. when migrants are used by third-countries or hostile non-state actors to destabilise the EU, and foresee a possible temporary derogation from the standard asylum procedures.
Under the new screening regulation, people who do not fulfil the conditions to enter the EU will be subject to a pre-entry screening procedure, including identification, collecting biometric data, health and security checks, for up to seven days. The specific needs of children will be taken into account and each member state will have an independent monitoring mechanism to ensure respect of fundamental rights.
For its part, the asylum procedures regulation establishes a common procedure across the EU to grant and to withdraw international protection, replacing several national procedures. Processing asylum claims should be faster -up to six months for a first decision-, with shorter limits for manifestly unfounded or inadmissible claims and at 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 will be able to record if someone could present a security threat, if the person is violent or unlawfully armed.
ALL NIGHT TALKS
Representatives of the European Parliament and of EU governments reached an accord after all-night talks on EU laws collectively called the New Pact on Migration and Asylum that should take effect next year.
The laws cover screening irregular migrants when they arrive in the European Union, procedures for handling asylum applications, rules on determining which EU country is responsible for handling applications and ways to handle crises.
Migrant arrivals in the European Union are way down from the 2015 peak of more than 1 million, but have steadily crept up from a 2020 low to 255,000 in the year to November, with more than half crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy or Malta.
Previous efforts to share out the responsibility of hosting migrants have foundered because eastern EU members in particular were unwilling to take in people who had arrived in Greece, Italy and other countries.
Under the new system, countries not at the border will have a choice between accepting refugees or paying into an EU fund.
The screening system envisaged will seek to distinguish between those in need of international protection and others who are not.
People whose asylum applications have a low chance of success, such as those from India, Tunisia or Turkey, can be prevented from entering the EU and detained at the border, as can people seen as representing a threat to security.
Refugee rights groups have said it will create what amounts to prison camps at the EU’s borders.
