voted in the European Parliament, the reform does not fully satisfy anyone

MEPs adopted the new migration pact on Wednesday. A reform contested by NGOs, who consider it “inhumane”, but also by the far right, who find it lax.

Nine years of negotiations. Every comma, every word, every paragraph fiercely negotiated between the States, the Commission, the MEPs. A compromise between the socialists, the liberals and the right… In short, this text validated on Wednesday April 10 by the European Parliament, is reminiscent of this board game where you have to stack wooden sticks… and the slightest shake can cause the whole thing to fall ‘building.

Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, welcomes a decision “historical”. This reform has two pillars. It sets up screening at Europe’s borders, to identify migrants who do not qualify for asylum – or who have very little chance of obtaining it; this is the case, for example, for nationals of Morocco, Tunisia or Bangladesh. The new text provides for an accelerated examination of these files, in six months maximum. This is for the “firmness” side. On the “solidarity” side, the pact provides that all European countries must contribute to the management of asylum, and no longer just the countries of first arrival, such as Greece or Italy. Some of the asylum seekers will therefore be distributed across the 27 countries. States that refuse to take their share, such as Poland or Hungary, will then have to pay a fine.

The prospect of the European elections

The increase in illegal entries detected in 2023 by the Frontex agency is real. It is around 17%, or 380,000 in total. Asylum requests are also at their highest in eight years: 1.14 million requests in 2023 in the European Union. Less than two months before the European elections, while parties hostile to immigration are on the rise across the continent, there was also a political urgency to agree on a text.

The European Commission wanted to deny any powerlessness on the subject, but will this displayed firmness pull the rug out from under the nationalist parties, or on the contrary encourage their ideas? Already, the European right wants to go further. She proposes delegating the management of asylum seekers to other countries, outside Europe, like the British project with Rwanda. As in the board game, the promises are piling up… eight weeks before the European elections.