On Thursday 8 February, the ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper) validated the various texts of the ‘Migration and Asylum Pact’, which had been the subject of a political agreement with the European Parliament on the night of 19-20 December, thus confirming the efforts undertaken since the end of 2020 to reform the European asylum and migration system (see EUROPE 13318/1).
While there was no suspense about the outcome of these discussions, this formal approval was nevertheless described as a crucial step by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU. All the Member States have approved the negotiations, with the exception of Poland and Hungary, whose opposition was expected. Slovakia opposed two texts, the Crisis Regulation and the Regulation on Asylum and Migration Management (RAMM).
Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties still has to validate the results of these negotiations. It is due to do so on Thursday 15 February.
The ‘Pact’ is in fact a collection of ten texts. In addition to the five texts (asylum and migration management, asylum and border return procedures, screening of migrants, crisis instrument and Eurodac) of the ‘Pact’ presented in 2020, there are the older texts of the 2016 ‘Asylum Package’, such as those on reception conditions for asylum seekers, qualification criteria for asylum applications and the new European resettlement programme (also approved on Thursday).
However, a number of provisional agreements reached on these initial texts in 2016 had already been put in place by the end of 2022 (see EUROPE 13088/6).
After the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2023, the Belgian Presidency has therefore focused its efforts since January on translating this political agreement into consolidated legislative texts.
As a reminder, the texts of the ‘Pact’ should enable the EU to: - create a new solidarity mechanism between Member States in times of migratory pressure or crisis characterised by mass influxes of people or situations of instrumentalisation; - achieve better control of migrants arriving irregularly at external borders; - speed up asylum or return decisions for people with little chance of receiving protection.
Member States will be able to choose how they provide assistance, between relocations or financial contributions.
In the European Parliament, however, certain texts are causing difficulties within certain groups such as the Greens/EFA group, in particular the ‘Crisis’ and APR texts, which in their view weaken the right of asylum and the protection of migrants.
“The member states today confirmed their commitment to improve the European asylum and migration system. These new rules will make the European asylum system more effective and increase solidarity between member states”, the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, responded in a press release.
“This agreement will fundamentally change the way in which we deal with migration and asylum on the ground, at the borders and within our territories”, she stated. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)