EU's new migration pact prepared, even Hungary could not veto
The European Union has successfully established a new framework for the regulation and management of migration and asylum, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told Reuters.
"The EU reached a landmark agreement on a new set of rules to manage migration and asylum," she sain on Wednesday on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). This agreement replaces the Dublin system, which has been in place for almost ten years.
The new set of rules is expected to simplify procedures, increase efficiency and ensure fair treatment for all persons seeking asylum or wishing to settle in the EU. Details of the newly established rules have not yet been made public.
The new migration pact includes new rules on the screening of irregular border crossers arriving in the EU, the collection of their biometric data, new standards on the procedure for lodging and processing asylum applications and the determination of the responsible member state for asylum procedures. It will also regulate cooperation and solidarity between member states, and the management of crisis situations, including in cases where migrants are used as a tool by third countries to attack the EU's internal order. As part of the system, non-border countries will have to participate in the procedures, and a budget is set for the procedures of each third-country national arriving in the EU.
All EU countries except Hungary have signed up to the proposal, which stresses and significantly expands the "safe third country" principle.
The adoption of the significantly tightened migration pact did not require a unanimous vote in the Council, so Hungary could be bypassed for the time being, but the Hungarian government may block its implementation.
There is a long-standing conflict in the EU between the southern border countries - Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Spain - and the northern countries - Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. The southerners do not want to bear the cost of hosting migrants and refugees alone, many of whom actually want to travel further north; the northerners insist that migrants stay in the first EU country they arrive in, carry out their procedures there, and later, they - the northern EU countries - either contribute to the cost or take over a quota of arrivals.
Under the plans, countries in the South will have to build guarded reception centres at their borders to register migrants and process their asylum applications. In return, it will be easier to deport rejected asylum seekers and frontline countries will receive help from the rest of the EU.
Címlapkép forrása: Getty Images
