EU migration pact clears last hurdle, push to harden rules continues

The European Union on Tuesday gave the final green light to a landmark overhaul of its migration and asylum policies that will see hardened borders and responsibility shared among member states.

EU officials had been at pains to wrap up the migration reforms - the product of years of debate - ahead of European Parliament elections scheduled for June.

The issue has been politically divisive, especially since an influx of arrivals in 2015 that exposed the migration system's weaknesses.

WHAT WAS AGREED?

The overhaul consists of ten pieces of legislation supported by the vast majority of EU member states.

However, Hungary and Poland voted against the entire package while Austria and Slovakia opposed particular parts. The Czech Republic, also a critic of the pact, abstained from all ten votes.

EU capitals have two years to put the rules into legal effect.

The new laws require all 27 EU member states to take some responsibility for managing asylum applications – including those who voted against the reforms – but the package also makes the rules stricter for applicants.

The pact establishes new border centres that will hold irregular migrants while their asylum requests are vetted. Deportations of those deemed inadmissible will be accelerated.

MIGRATION PACT PRAISED AND PILLORIED

European Council President Charles Michel called the legislation "a milestone in the EU's response to manage migration" on X, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hailed the "historic agreement."

In contrast, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala stated that while the pact was a first step towards tackling illegal migration, it was not enough.

Fiala said that's why the Czech Republic has co-founded a group of countries that want to tackle illegal migration more strongly.

The pact is drawing criticism from migrant rights charities, some nationalist governments and researchers - for different reasons.

Human rights advocacy group Amnesty International argued that it will "lead to greater human suffering."

Migration researcher Judith Kohlenberger of the Vienna University of Economics and Business told the Austrian Press Agency that the reform was completely ignoring the fight against the causes of migration.

"On the one hand, we are fending off refugees, while on the other we are constantly helping to create the reasons for flight ­ see the consequences of the climate crisis or economic policy. Europe is contributing to flight and labour migration," said Kohlenberger.

According to her, the only positive thing about the EU asylum and migration pact is that the 27 member states have finally managed to reach a compromise on migration policy.

"It would have been a declaration of bankruptcy by the EU Commission if there had been no progress here" as this would play into the hands of the right-wing parties in the EU elections in June, she said.

CAMPAIGN FOR MIGRATION CLAMPDOWN

The European Parliament elections are expected to see a surge by far-right parties campaigning on the need to crack down on irregular migration.

The far-right Swedish Democrats for example – a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament – chose "My Europe is building walls" as their main slogan for the upcoming EU elections.

Fabrice Leggeri, former Frontex chief and a candidate for the French far-right National Rally party for the European elections, said he saw the June vote as "a referendum."

Frontex is the EU agency responsible for border management.

Leggeri rejected the idea that Frontex is a "super humanitarian NGO" in an interview with Portuguese news agency LUSA, instead advocating for "pragmatism" in migration management.

EUROSTAT: ASYLUM APPLICATIONS IN EUROPE ON THE RISE

Asylum applications in Europe are on the rise, according to Eurostat data.

In 2023, 1,048,900 first-time asylum applicants were recorded - an increase of 20% compared to 2022, almost reaching the highs of 2015 and 2016.

The highest per capita number of first-time asylum applicants in 2023 was recorded in Cyprus (13 applicants per 1,000 people), followed by Greece and Austria (both six applicants per 1,000 people).

SOLIDARITY MECHANISM: TAKE PEOPLE IN OR PAY UP

A solidarity mechanism in the pact is intended to relieve the burden on those countries where many refugees arrive – for example Italy, Greece or Spain.

The plan is to redistribute at least 30,000 refugees from these countries to other EU states each year.

If the countries do not want to take in refugees, they must provide support to the under-pressure nations, for example in the form of payments of €20,000 ($21,753) per migrant.

In Slovenia, for example, this could mean that the country would likely have to take in 126 persons or contribute €2.52 million annually.

MIGRATION DEALS WITH NON-EU COUNTRIES CONTINUE

In parallel with the sweeping reforms, the EU is trying to curb arrival numbers by striking migration deals with nearby countries of transit and origin.

In recent months the EU has signed agreements with Tunisia, Mauritania and Egypt.

Other examples of the European trend towards outsourcing migration policies are the Rwanda model of non-EU member Britain or a bilateral Italy-Albania agreement.

OUTSOURCING MIGRATION NEEDS EXPLAINING

Camille Le Coz, an expert from the Migration Policy Institute Europe, said that there were "many questions" about how any such outsourcing initiatives could work.

Under EU law, immigrants can only be sent to a country outside the bloc where they could have applied for asylum, provided they have a sufficient link with that country.

That currently rules out any programmes within the EU styled on Britain's deal aimed at sending UK arrivals to Rwanda.

Le Coz said that it still needs to be "clarified" how proposals for any EU outsourcing deals would work as well as "who the European authorities are working with and which third countries are likely to accept."

Henrik Emilsson, migration researcher at Malmö University, also classifies the idea of handling the asylum process outside of the EU as "political slogans" rather than something that can be done, at least on a short term.

According to him, setting up asylum centres outside the EU might even need a treaty change.

15 EU COUNTRIES PUSH FOR TOUGHER RULES

Despite the newly inked agreement, 15 EU countries have already demanded a further tightening of the bloc's asylum policy, in a joint letter to the commission, to make it easier to transfer undocumented migrants to non-EU countries, including when they are rescued at sea.

Spearheaded by the Czech Republic, Denmark and Austria, other signatories include Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Finland.

The letter cited the example of the EU arrangement made with Turkey in 2016 to take in Syrian refugees fleeing the war in their home country.

The content of this article is based on reporting by AFP, ANSA, APA, ATA, BTA, CTK, dpa, EFE, Europa Press, LUSA, Ritzau, STA, TASR, TT as part of the European Newsroom (enr) project.