Asylum and Migration Pact faces tight last vote in EU Parliament

If the European Parliament endorses the Asylum and Migration Pact on Wednesday (10 April), the EU will get closer to a revamped scheme for processing irregular migrants and asylum seekers at EU borders, but lawmakers and civil society are unhappy with the final text, heralding a complicated implementation. 

The Pact is a set of nine interdependent legislative files negotiated for over more than three years between the 27 member states of the Parliament and the European Commission.

The package is a reform of the current European rules for processing irregular migrants and asylum seekers.

The discussion started nine years ago, in 2015, following the war in Syria, as the unprecedentedly large flows of migrants at the bloc’s southern borders triggered debates on solidarity and allocation of people looking for shelter across EU countries.

How to handle the arrival of irregular migrants and asylum seekers and organise their welcome or return has been one of the most divisive debates among EU countries.

In trying to cope with the inflow, first-arrival countries in Europe’s South called on the EU to show solidarity.

In 2023, around 380,000 non-Europeans arrived on EU soil in an irregular manner, the highest level since 2016. One million asylum demands were registered.

The Parliament’s vote is the second-to-last step before the Pact’s measures are rolled out. What remains is for member states to sign off on the package deal via a qualified majority vote — expected on 29 April.

One person involved in the negotiations told Euractiv that the Pact is expected to pass with a very slim majority of around 10 votes in Brussels’s Hemicycle.

‘Solidarity’ all the way

Among the many schemes put in place, the “solidarity mechanism” is portrayed by the Pact’s architects as the solution to the EU-wide fight among governments to share the burden of relocating migrants with border member states and help ease the burden.

Concretely, member states experiencing ‘migration pressures’ will be able to action a ‘solidarity clause’, which would trigger the relocation of migrants to other EU countries or provide first-arrival counterparts with extra cash, material assistance such as surveillance tools, and deployment of personnel.

The scheme also establishes a “pre-entry” screening at the border that will be completed in days – instead of months or years as is the case now – in an attempt to speed up the processing of asylum claims and do a first filtering early in the process.

Temporary accommodation will be set up on the EU soil, and cooperation with third countries organised under three months for the rejected asylum seekers.

Fight against the status quo

All members of the European Parliament (MEPs) leading the negotiations agree that the final product is far from perfect, as the files have been negotiated between all major political forces to find a compromise, and later with EU countries, watering down the final product.

“Nobody is entitled to being happy after negotiations of such complexity, ambition, scale, and, of course, procedural sophistication,” said Socialist MEP Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, “But is it an improvement? Yes”.

Lawmakers, however, emphasised that while the pact may not be perfect, it is better than the status quo or start negotiations all over again.

“We will finally move away from the ad hoc solutions that we see today, and where the responsibility for the migration policy falls on a few member states,” the conservative EPP’s lead negotiator Tomas Tobé told the press, especially referring to Italy and Greece. “Everybody will have to contribute,” he insisted.

But an “improvement” may not be enough for everyone, as some French and Italian lawmakers from the Socialists (S&D) and the EPP, as well as some in the nationalist conservative ECR, are expected to vote against it, among others.

According to ECR’s rapporteur Jorge Buxadé, the pact is missing measures regarding migrant returns, which should be addressed in the next legislature.

NGOs have almost unanimously warned against most of the pact’s measures, which they said “will mirror the failed approaches of the past and worsen their consequences,” 50 of them wrote in an open letter in December.

Less than 24 hours before the vote, leading lawmakers were still scrambling for support.

“My work is constantly, now, hour by hour, convincing colleagues that the absolute best way to help support the European migration policy now is to be loyal to the whole Pact,” Tomás Tobé said.

One concern among negotiators is that not all files will pass, rendering the whole deal useless, as almost all texts are interlinked to provide what they see as a comprehensive solution.

Difficult implementation ahead

Once the Pact is adopted, the biggest challenge will be its implementation over two years, which will determine the final effect of the law.

“Everything hinges on the implementation,” liberal MEP Sophie In’t Veld, a leading rapporteur, told the press.

Fabienne Keller, Liberal Renew’s rapporteur on the file, insisted to Euractiv that she will be “extremely vigilant”  that children’s rights are respected.

One of the key issues around the implementation of the measures is related to building centers at the borders to welcome, screen, and host people, and putting together a large recruitment strategy for personnel.

It also involves setting up schemes with third countries to repatriate people and secure funds in the EU’s next seven-year budget (2028-2035).

[Edited by Alice Taylor/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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