EU reaches breakthrough in reform of asylum and migration system

The Spanish presidency of the Council and the European Parliament have reached a deal on the core political elements of five key regulations that will thoroughly overhaul the EU's legal framework on asylum and migration.

"The EU is delivering on its promise to improve the asylum and migration system. Citizens across the EU want their governments to deal with the migration challenge and today is a big step in this direction. This reform is a crucial piece of the puzzle. But the EU also remains committed to tackling the root causes of migration, working together with countries of origin and transit and adressing the scourge of migrant smuggling," Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez, Spanish Minister for the Interior, said in a statement published on the official website of European Council. 

The five EU laws that the Spanish presidency and Parliament have agreed on touch upon all stages of asylum and migration management, ranging from screening irregular migrants when they arrive in the EU, taking biometric data, procedures for making and handling asylum applications, the rules on determining which member state is responsible for handling an asylum application and cooperation and solidarity between member states and how to handle crisis situations, including cases of instrumentalisation of migrants.

The new rules, once adopted, will make the European asylum system more effective and will increase the solidarity between member states by enabling to lighten the load on those member states where most migrants arrive.

All five regulations which are part of today's political agreement are components of the new pact on migration and asylum which the Commission proposed on September 23, 2020. The Council reached its position on these five laws in June 2022, June 2023 and October 2023 respectively and has since then been negotiating with the European Parliament to settle to agree on a common stance.