On April 16th, the European Commission proposed accelerating the implementation of specific aspects of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was adopted last year and is due to enter into application in June 2026; as well as creating new legal tools to facilitate the establishment of the Pact.
Under these proposals, EU member states would be able to implement the following measures earlier:
- Activate the 20% Recognition Rate Threshold for expediting asylum requests: asylum seekers from countries with a 20% or lower success rate for asylum applications in the EU will follow the Accelerated Asylum Procedure, allowing potential return for their return to their home or third country (a country that is not a member of the EU and is not the applicant’s country of origin) within three months maximum.
- Designate safe countries independently: member states will have the autonomy to designate safe countries of origin and safe third countries. This also includes the ability to exclude specific regions or clearly identifiable categories of individuals, providing greater flexibility.
- Use an EU List of Safe Countries of Origin: complementing the above measures, this collective list will help member states to expedite asylum claims from nationals of the listed countries: Kosovo, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Morocco, and Tunisia, as they are unlikely to be successful.
It is now for the European Parliament and the Council to agree on this proposal.
The 4 pillars of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum
For context, the Pact aims to establish a common set of regulations to streamline immigration management. Its goals are organized around the following 4 pillars:
- Securing external borders through robust screening procedures, improved border controls and return mechanisms, and new crisis protocols, including measures to counter the instrumentalisation of migrants, as seen at the Greece/Turkey and Poland/Belarus borders.
- Facilitating fast and efficient procedures, improving EU standards for refugee status qualification, and preventing abuse while safeguarding fundamental rights.
- Providing increased solidarity either to frontline states like Spain, Italy, and Greece, which face high migratory pressure, or to destination countries such as Germany and France, by addressing and limiting secondary movements within the EU.
- Establishing international partnerships with third countries to address challenges such as irregular departures and human trafficking.
Key Regulations of the Pact on Migration and Asylum
Here is a selection of the most important regulations of the Pact:
- Screening and Amending Regulations: all irregular migrants will be registered and subject to identity, security, and health checks at the EU’s external borders.
- Asylum Procedure Regulation: establishes a common procedure for asylum applications, aiming to limit abuse and reduce incentives for secondary movement across EU member states.
- Eurodac Regulation: enhances the existing Eurodac system into an interoperable asylum and migration database to support the asylum system, manage irregular migration, and facilitate resettlements.
- Qualification Regulation: harmonizes protection standards across the EU to ensure consistent rights for those granted refugee status and to prevent “asylum shopping.”
- Resettlement Framework Regulation: creates a common EU framework to support the resettlement of refugees from outside EU territory through coordinated efforts by member states.
- Asylum and Migration Management Regulation: establishes a permanent solidarity mechanism to rebalance the current system, where a small number of countries are responsible for the majority of asylum applications.
Diving Deeper within the Pact on Migration and Asylum
If you want to learn more about the acceleration of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Commission has been compiling numerous supporting materials:
- Legislative files describing its regulations and answering frequently asked questions
- A lengthy Explanatory Memo
- Factsheets on the 4 Pillars:
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