Aquí Europa
The Spanish Presidency of the Council and the European Parliament yesterday reached an agreement on the central political elements of five key regulations that will thoroughly review the EU Legal Framework on Asylum and Migration.
The five EU laws that the Presidency and the Spanish Parliament have agreed on address all stages of asylum and migration management, from the control of irregular migrants when they arrive in the EU, the taking of biometric data, the procedures for submitting and managing asylum applications, rules on determining which Member State is responsible for processing an asylum application and cooperation and solidarity between Member States and how to manage crisis situations, including cases of instrumentalization of migrants.
“This reform is a crucial piece of the puzzle. But the EU also remains committed to addressing the root causes of migration, collaborating with countries of origin and transit and tackling the scourge of migrant smuggling,” said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
The new rules, once adopted, will make the European asylum system more effective and increase solidarity between Member States by easing the burden on those Member States where most migrants arrive.
The five regulations that form part of yesterday’s political agreement are components of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum that the Commission proposed on 23 September 2020. The Council adopted its position on these five laws in June 2022, June 2023 and October 2023 respectively and has since been negotiating with the European Parliament to reach an agreement on a common position.
The interim agreement must be formally adopted by Parliament and the Council before it can become law. Co-legislators pledged to adopt reform of EU migration and asylum rules before the 2024 European elections.
Following the agreement, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said: “Today is a truly historic day, as we have delivered on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, possibly the most important legislative package of this mandate.”
“Europe will now have a solid legislative framework that will be the same in all Member States. Let it work and protect, an approach that is humane and fair to those who seek protection, that is firm with those who are ineligible and that is strong with those who exploit the most vulnerable,” she continued.
The Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR) denounced yesterday that the political agreement on the future EU Migration and Asylum Pact “further undermines the right to asylum and human rights in the EU.” According to the organization, after eight years of intense negotiations, there will be a reform of the Common European Asylum System in 2024 which “in practice means imposing even more obstacles to access the international protection procedure.”
