In September 2020, the European Commission presented its pact on asylum, spanning nine regulations and a directive after a decade of political turmoil that saw EU states turn against each other over migration.
The laws were finally adopted on 12 June, 2024. Margaritis Schinas, who was then vice-president of the commission, said that deals with other countries are needed to ensure that its new internal management rules can work.
“We can sideline the extreme right,” he had also previously insisted.
Two years have since passed and the EU’s credibility is now on the line as EU-wide adopted asylum laws launch next week, on Friday (12 June). Multi-billion euro cash for migrants deals have been hammered out, including with Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Mauritania.
Promises to curb irregular migration, accelerate deportations, and turn away asylum seekers by sending them abroad, while reasserting control over the EU’s external borders are among the headline measures aimed at reassuring a public the commission believes is increasingly swayed by the far-right.
