Migration and asylum pact to the challenge of implementation

Brussels – One last piece is missing for the completion of the legislative process of the Migration and Asylum Pact, but the EU institutions and member countries are already beginning to look to the next, most complicated stage for the short- and medium-term future: implementing a very complex piece of legislation with 13 dossiers in the reform sought by the von der Leyen Commission and agreed upon with extreme difficulty by the EU Parliament and Council over the past four years. “In June, the Commission will present the Joint Implementation Plan. We have ten building blocks, and we will also make models to support the member states,” announced Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson on the sidelines of the ministerial conference on the implementation of the Migration and Asylum Pact held in Ghent between yesterday and today (April 29-30).

European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson

With the final go-ahead by written procedure to the agreement on the Migration and Asylum Pact expected—but not yet confirmed, as EU sources in Brussels point out—at the meeting of the 27 EU ministers of economic and financial affairs on May 14, a working paper from the EU Council General Secretariat obtained by Eunews predicts in July the entry into force of all legislative acts of the Pact and the implementation of the Resettlement Regulation, while in September the Implementing Act to create adequate capacity to manage the future needs of the twenty-seven countries. The Commission’s Joint Implementation Plan will arrive in June, “three months earlier than we would be legally obliged to,” Commissioner Johansson was keen to emphasize that she wanted to tighten the timetable to “give time for member states to prepare their national plans.” Regarding the national implementation plans, the deadline for submission is January 2025, “but I proposed to submit drafts as early as November so that we can discuss and prepare them with sufficient support.”

In this context, EU governments will have to assess “needs, legislation, training, procurement, equipment, facilities,” relying on “dedicated teams to support each member state in the implementation; we are reorganizing within my service,” the Swedish commissioner explained to the press. According to the Council document, national contingency plans must also be submitted by April 2025 and national strategies by June/July, with a deadline of June 2026 for the entry into force of all Migration and Asylum Pact files. “Twenty-four months goes by quickly, but we are not starting from scratch,” stressed the von der Leyen cabinet member responsible for Home Affairs, anticipating—but without further details even from the Berlaymont services—that “14 member states have partially started to work” on implementation. In all likelihood, Ireland (which, along with Denmark, has an opt-out clause on Home Affairs, i.e., a non-participation option) will also fully participate in this process after the decision to opt-in by the Dublin government that now “only needs the approval of Parliament,” as Johannson pointed out.

The basis of the Migration and Asylum Pact

The basis on which the new, very complex system of the Migration and Asylum Pact (here the explanation in detail) is set is the relationship between solidarity and responsibility in managing migrants among the twenty-seven countries. The former concept permeates the Regulation for the Management of Asylum and Migration (RAMM), which in no way overrides the cardinal principle of the 2013 Dublin Regulation, namely that the task of examining the asylum claim of a person who irregularly enters EU territory rests with the first EU member state to which they enter. Countries like Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, and Spain will be responsible for the claims. At the same time, other member states who want to “dublin” (i.e., extradite) these migrants (including minors and those seeking reunification with siblings) will have to send a notification, no longer a reciprocal due process request with the agreement of the country of first arrival as is the case today.

After the Regulation enters into force—24 months after its publication in the EU Official Journal—the now famous mandatory solidarity mechanism will be introduced for all twenty-seven countries (based on GDP and population), which puts the three forms of solidarity on an equal level: placements of migrants, financial contributions, or support to third countries. Contributions to member countries can be directed to reception systems and to funding fixed and mobile border facilities through the Border and Visa Management Instrument (BMVI) and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). There is no mandatory relocation for migrants disembarked after search and rescue operations at sea; for those under the RAMM procedure, there is no legal representation, only counselling.
The concept of accountability is particularly linked to the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR), which increases only those provided for countries of first entry. It will apply automatically in case of risk for security threat issues (including unaccompanied minors) of “deception of authorities” or if the migrant person comes from a country with a recognition rate of less than 20 per cent. Border procedures will provide de facto detention, with no exemptions even for families with children under 12, no legal representation, nor a stay for appeals against most decisions (the exception is for inadmissibility of those based on the concept of “safe third country” and for unaccompanied minors).
Crucial to this Regulation is precisely the concept of “safe third country,” for which both an EU list and national lists are provided to justify and expedite rapid returns out of the Union unless the person’s ties to the state in question preclude their safety. New accountability obligations include completing the examination of an asylum application through the border procedure within six months (APR) but also extending the period of responsibility for handling applications to 20 months and maintaining at 12 months that for search and rescue operations at sea (RAMM). The annual maximum for border procedures is set at 30,000 people, determined on the basis of a formula that takes into account the number of irregular border crossings and the number of expulsions in the previous three years.