Gregori: “For the new EU migration pact, major challenge will be evaluation timeframe”

Brussels – “The biggest challenge will be the swift assessment of applications” for international protection and verification of the conditions for eventual intake. Nina Gregori, executive director of the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), warns politicians of what awaits the Europe of states grappling with flows of migrants if things are not done right. The new European Pact on Immigration and Asylum is already in the implementation phase, but it will come into full force on 12 June 2026, and by that time, all the necessary paperwork must be in order. 

“Already now, across Europe, we have one million first asylum applications pending,” emphasised Gregori during the hearing in the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee. Numbers that show the administrative difficulties of national systems that are already struggling, and that risk suffocating even more, given the obligations of the new EU regulations. 

Under the new pact, on the one hand, there are obligatory border screening requirements lasting a maximum of seven days to assess who is entitled to accelerated procedures (APR) and who to ordinary ones (RAMM). During this time, persons must be identified and subjected to health and security checks. Then, the period for border controls, in or near transit zones, must be reduced to a maximum of three months (including the appeal period). 

All this implies an effort in terms of personnel, preparation, and system capacity. Not exactly a joke, warns the executive director of the EUAA, remotely connected due to the cyber attack against European airports that also resulted in the cancellation of the flight that was supposed to take her to Brussels. “Justice systems will have to be able to guarantee appeals in the event of negative assessments, reminds Gregori. “The judiciary is independent, but investment will be needed here,” she reasons aloud in what is a warning to the member states. Once the new rules for handling asylum seekers are fully in place, governments could face infringement proceedings if they are not respected.