The European Parliament’s civil liberties committee on 13 February 2024 voted through the new screening provisions of the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact. Measures include pre-entry screening requiring identification, collecting biometric data, and health and security checks. Predictably, civil society and NGOs have been up in arms about the rights of asylum seekers not being respected.
In 2016, with unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in the EU, the European Commission proposed a package of reforms to the common European asylum system (CEAS). In June 2018, a broad provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the presidency of the Council of the EU on several of the reform proposals.
However, the agreement did not get the necessary support from the Member States. The reform stalled owing to persistent disagreements among the Member States on how to apply the principle of solidarity in practice and share their responsibilities in the area of asylum in a fair manner.
In September 2020, the Commission sought to revive the reform by putting forward a new pact on migration and asylum, offering a comprehensive approach aimed at strengthening and integrating key EU policies on migration, asylum and border management. The pact builds on and amends the previous reform proposals.
In line with the gradual approach proposed by the French Presidency of the Council in June 2022, the Member States reached agreement on several aspects of the reform relating to the screening and registration of migrants arriving at the EU’s external borders. Following an agreement in the Council in June 2023 on two key proposals, the negotiations between the Parliament and the Council resumed, leading to a political agreement on the major reform files in December 2023.
On 8 February 2024, the Permanent Representatives to the European Union of the governments of the Member States (Coreper) approved the provisional agreement. The files now have to be formally adopted by the Parliament and the Council. It is expected that the reform will be finalised before the 2024 European elections, as previously agreed by the co-legislators. This is a further update of a briefing originally published in December 2022.
First outcomes of the adoption
The agreement covers five key proposals of the Pact:
- Screening Regulation: Creating uniform rules concerning the identification of non-EU nationals upon their arrival, thus increasing the security within the Schengen area.
- Eurodac Regulation: Developing a common database gathering more accurate and complete data to detect unauthorised movements.
- Asylum Procedures Regulation: Making asylum, return and border procedures quicker and more effective.
- Asylum Migration Management Regulation: Establishing a new solidarity mechanism amongst Member States to balance the current system, where a few countries are responsible for the vast majority of asylum applications, and clear rules on responsibility for asylum applications.
- Crisis and Force majeure Regulation: Ensuring that the EU is prepared in the future to face situations of crisis, including instrumentalisation of migrants.
Deliverables preceding the adoption
Prior to the political agreement, the Pact had already delivered various outcomes:
Recommendation on an EU mechanism for preparedness and management of crises related to migration: This has developed an early warning and forecasting system allowing prompt identification of migration situations, enabling effective preparedness and response.
Recommendation on cooperation on search and rescue and guidance on non-criminalisation of search and rescue: This recommendation improves cooperation among EU Member States in managing private vessels involved in Search and Rescue (SAR) operations. It has set the ground for the regular meetings of the European Contact Group on SAR. The guidance prevents the criminalisation of SAR humanitarian operations.
- The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) replaced the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) with more tools to support Member States in bringing greater convergence to asylum and reception practices at the EU’s high standards.
- Return Coordinator: The EU Return Coordinator was appointed on 2 March 2022 to establish an effective and common European return system and improve the coordination of actions between the EU and the Member States.
- Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism: 23 EU Member States and associated countries have agreed since 22 June 2022 to support Member States under pressure, including by pledging to relocate some of their asylum seekers and through financial contributions. With relocations ongoing, more than 1000 asylum seekers have been relocated from Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain by early 2023.
Once these proposals are formally adopted by the European Parliament and Council, the pillars of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum will be in place. Then, specific legislative acts will be adopted, and the Commission will assist Member States in implementing the new rules in their national legislation.
