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Migration and Home Affairs
11 March 2024

What is the New Pact on Migration and Asylum of the EU?

The New Pact on Migration and Asylum is a set of regulations and policies to create a fairer, efficient, and more sustainable migration and asylum process for the European Union. The Pact, which was proposed in September 2020 and agreed between the European Parliament and the Council in December 2023, is designed to manage and normalise migration for the long term, providing certainty, clarity and decent conditions for people arriving in the EU. It also establishes a common approach to migration and asylum that is based on solidarity, responsibility, and respect for human rights.

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.

 

Political agreement on the key pillars of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum

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Timeline of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum

  1. March 2022
  2. September 2020
    • Asylum and Migration Management Regulation 
    • Screening procedure at the external border 
    • A new Asylum Procedures Regulation 
    • Revised EURODAC database 
    • Recommendation on an EU mechanism for preparedness and management of crises related to migration 
    • Regulation to address situations of force majeure 
    • Recommendation on cooperation on search and rescue 
    • Guidance on non-criminalisation of search and rescue