EU states reach breakthrough on reforming migration rules

European Union countries reached a breakthrough on Wednesday in years-long negotiations over how to reform migration rules, as diplomats agreed a compromise on how to deal with surges of irregular migration.

The agreement, which remains to be finalised in talks between EU countries and the European Parliament, would allow countries more flexibility in migration and asylum rules when the number of people arriving is exceptionally high.

Countries that receive large numbers of irregular migrants would be able to ask for assistance from other EU member states, which could choose to either offer financial aid, take over processing of some asylum claims, or take in some migrants themselves.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said it was possible the EU could finally agree on proposed new regulations known as the migration and asylum pact before EU elections take place next year. “This a real game changer,” she wrote on social media.

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The issue of how to reform migration has divided the EU for years, causing acrimony between national capitals as they blamed each other for shirking responsibilities while facing intense domestic pressure over surges in irregular migration since the Syrian civil war.

The agreement would allow countries to speed up asylum procedures during times of crisis and to register applications for international protection four weeks after they are made.

When arrivals surge, asylum seekers could also be kept at the border for longer time periods while their applications are considered, and rejected applicants could be detained for longer than the current limit of 12 weeks.

The agreement was reached in advance of talks on irregular migration between national EU leaders as they gather in Granada, Spain, on Thursday and Friday.

It comes after an increase in the number of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Italy to the highest level in years, overwhelming the Italian island of Lampedusa in recent weeks.

The agreement was held up last week as Italy contested a reference to NGOs that provide search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean, which the Rome government believes encourages more people to make the dangerous crossing.

Germany, whose support was also needed to reach the deal, had defended the role of the search-and-rescue vessels as fulfilling legal and moral obligations to save lives at sea.

Since 2014 an estimated 28,000 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

The deal was reached despite the opposition of Hungary and Poland, which have pushed a more hardline immigration policy, while Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has cast the EU as forcing his country to accept more migrants. A qualified majority rather than unanimity is required to agree the deal, meaning the two countries cannot block it.

“Today we have achieved a huge step forward on a critical issue for the future of the EU,” said Spain’s acting home affairs minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez, who had been chairing talks. “With today’s agreement we are now in a better position to reach an agreement on the entire asylum and migration pact with the European Parliament by the end of this semester.”

Sweden’s migration minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the breakthrough was “an important piece of the puzzle” in how to reform the EU’s overall migration and asylum rules.

An agreement was vital “to ensure order at the EU’s external borders and to reduce flows”, she said.

The deal on how to manage crisis situations was the final piece to be agreed in the overall asylum and migration pact, which was proposed in 2020 after previous efforts to overhaul migration rules were frustrated for years.

The reform is intended to make EU countries co-operate in managing migration, to speed the processing of asylum claims and the deportation of rejected applicants, and to even out the burden between member states so that border countries like Italy and Greece are no longer overwhelmed.

The EU has also made efforts to strike deals with overseas countries to reduce the number of people who arrive at its borders to claim asylum, including a recent deal with Tunisia that quickly soured as it faced backtracking in Tunis and severe criticism in Europe over human rights concerns.