EU parliament adopts reform of asylum policies

Pact will tighten border rules and force members of the bloc to share responsibility for migrants

The parliament of the European Union has adopted a sweeping reform of Europe’s asylum policies that will both tighten border procedures and force all the bloc’s 27 nations to share responsibility.

The parliament’s main political groups overcame opposition from far-right and far-left parties to pass the new migration and asylum pact – enshrining a difficult overhaul nearly a decade in the making.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the vote, saying it would “secure European borders … while ensuring the protection of the fundamental rights” of migrants.

“We must be the ones to decide who comes to the European Union and under what circumstances, and not the smugglers and traffickers,” she said.

EU governments – a majority of which previously approved the pact – also welcomed its adoption. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Greece’s Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis both called it “historic”. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi hailed what he termed “the best possible compromise.”

But there was dissent when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban derided the reform as “another nail in the coffin of the European Union”.

“Unity is dead, secure borders are no more. Hungary will never give in to the mass migration frenzy! We need a change in Brussels in order to Stop Migration!” Orban said in a post to social media platform X.

For very different reasons, migrant charities also slammed the pact, which includes building border centres to hold asylum seekers and sending some to outside “safe” countries.

Amnesty International said the EU was “shamefully” backing a deal “they know will lead to greater human suffering” while the Red Cross federation urged member states “to guarantee humane conditions for asylum seekers and migrants affected”.

The vote itself was initially disrupted by protesters yelling: “The pact kills – vote no!”, while dozens of demonstrators outside the parliament building in Brussels held up placards with slogans decrying the reform.

We must be the ones to decide who comes to the European Union and under what circumstances URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT

The parliament’s far-left grouping, which felt the reforms were incompatible with Europe’s commitment to upholding human rights, said it was a “dark day”. It was “a pact with the devil”, said Damien Careme, a lawmaker from the Greens group.

As well as Orban, other far-right lawmakers also opposed the passage of the 10 laws making up the pact as insufficient to stop irregular migrants they accused of spreading insecurity and threatening to “submerge” European identity.