2023-12-20 10:26:00
The European Union has reached an agreement on the Pact on asylum and migration with new rules and regulations on the topic. The green light from MEPs and EU governments came during the trilogue, the interinstitutional negotiation that gives the final shape to the legislative texts, Parliament communicates. Parliament and Council negotiators have agreed on the final form of five separate EU regulations, which set out how to share the management of asylum and migration flows between member states and what to do if a sudden migration crisis erupts.
What the Pact provides: the measures
The rules also regulate how to treat people arriving at the EU’s external borders, the processing of asylum requests and the identification of those who arrive. Among other things, the Chamber explains by including it among the main points at the head of the statement, they improve identification procedures on arrival, “including facial recognition and fingerprints, which cover children from the age of six” in on.
The new regulation on the management of asylum and migration provides for mandatory solidarity for EU countries recognized as under migratory pressure, allowing other member states to choose between the relocation of asylum seekers to their territory and the payment of financial contributions. It is what was once called ‘à la carte’ solidarity, which Italy has opposed for years, pushing for compulsory relocations, which however never passed through the Council.
The text determines new criteria according to which a Member State is responsible for examining applications for international protection (ex Dublin rules). To respond to the sudden increase in arrivals, the legislation relating to crises and force majeure establishes a mechanism to ensure solidarity and measures to support Member States facing an exceptional influx of non-EU migrants leading to the “collapse ” of the national asylum system. The rules also concern the exploitation of migrants, i.e. when the latter are used by third countries or hostile non-state actors to destabilize the EU, as Belarus did towards Poland and Russia towards Finland, and provide for a possible temporary derogation from standard asylum procedures.
Under the new screening regulation, people who do not meet the conditions to enter the EU will be subject to a pre-entry screening procedure, which includes identification, collection of biometric data and health and security checks, for a period of maximum of 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 for fundamental rights.
The Asylum Procedures Regulation establishes a common procedure across the EU for granting and withdrawing international protection, replacing different national procedures. The processing of asylum requests should be faster (up to six months for a first decision), with shorter limits for manifestly unfounded or inadmissible requests and at EU borders. Finally, the Eurodac reform aims to more effectively identify those arriving in the EU by adding facial images to fingerprints, even for children aged six and over. Authorities will be able to record whether someone might pose a security threat, whether the person is violent or illegally armed.
The provisional agreement must now be formally adopted by Parliament and the Council before it can become law. The co-legislators committed to adopting the reform of the EE rules on migration and asylum before the European elections in June 2024.
Metsola: “Day that will go down in history”
“20 December 2023 will go down in history” as “the day the EU reached a historic agreement on a new set of rules to manage migration and asylum”, wrote the President of the European Parliament via social media this morning. Europe, she continues, “has managed to overcome the difficulties once again. I am very proud of the fact that with the pact on migration and asylum we have kept our word and produced solutions”.
For Metsola, he then remarked, “today is a truly historic day, since we have created the pact on migration and asylum, perhaps the most important legislative package of this mandate. Europe will now have a solid and equal legislative framework in all states members, that works and that protects, a humane and fair approach with those who seek protection” but “firm with those who are not entitled to it” and “strong with those who exploit the most vulnerable”.
Migration, Metsola notes, “was the number one concern raised by citizens across the Union during the 2019 elections. Completing this package before the end of the year is a huge success for the constructive and pro-European centre, ahead of the start of an election year in Europe”.
“Migration is a common European challenge: today’s decision will allow us to manage it together”, underlines the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, via social media, after the trialogue on the EU pact.
“All the pieces are falling into place. We have made a breakthrough on the five fundamental pillars of the pact on migration and asylum”, the words of the Vice President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas, via social media. “It’s been a long road to get here. But we made it. Europe is finally delivering results on migration,” she concludes.
“We have brought the migration issue back to the center of the European agenda and thanks to the ability to find the right balance between responsibility and solidarity we have managed to carry forward and conclude a negotiation that had been at a standstill for years. The approval of the Pact is a great success for Europe and for Italy which will now be able to count on new rules to manage migratory flows and combat human traffickers”. This was declared by the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, after the announcement.
“The Pact is the result of long negotiations in which Italy has always played a leading role to establish a balanced solution that no longer makes the EU border countries, particularly exposed to migratory pressure, feel alone,” he continued. the owner of the Interior Ministry.
“I thank my colleagues who during the formal and informal meetings, most recently in Brussels on 4 December, have always appreciated the position of our country which has acted with the aim of providing Europe with more effective tools, to overcome the Dublin regulation and to manage the challenge of migration in a truly supportive manner”, he concluded.
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