The European Union has reached a\u00a0provisional\u00a0agreement\u00a0to \u201cthoroughly overhaul\u201d its laws on\u00a0asylum\u00a0and\u00a0migration, a move being hailed as a landmark but which could face challenges when each member state comes to approve it. <\/p>\n
The deal covers the\u00a0political\u00a0elements\u00a0of\u00a0five\u00a0EU\u00a0laws that \u201ctouch upon all stages\u00a0of\u00a0asylum\u00a0and\u00a0migration\u00a0management,\u201d the\u00a0European Council said in a statement, adding that all five are components\u00a0of\u00a0the pact\u00a0on\u00a0migration\u00a0and\u00a0asylum\u00a0proposed by the\u00a0European Commission in 2020. <\/p>\n
The five\u00a0EU\u00a0laws agreed upon address issues including the screening\u00a0of\u00a0irregular migrants, procedures for handling\u00a0asylum\u00a0applications, rules\u00a0on\u00a0determining which member state is responsible for handling an\u00a0asylum\u00a0application,\u00a0and\u00a0how to handle crisis situations, according to the\u00a0European Council statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe new rules,\u00a0once adopted, will make the\u00a0European\u00a0asylum\u00a0system\u00a0more effective\u00a0and\u00a0will increase the solidarity between member states by enabling to lighten the load\u00a0on\u00a0those member states where most migrants arrive,\u201d the statement added. <\/p>\n
There have long been complaints that some EU members receive far more migrants than others. Under the proposals, countries not at the border will have to choose between accepting their share of 30,000 asylum applicants or paying at least 20,000 euros ($21,870) per person into an EU fund, Reuters reported. <\/p>\n
The\u00a0agreement was made between the current Spanish presidency of the European Council, which rotates between member states every six months, and the European Parliament. <\/p>\n
While the agreement was hailed as historic by Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, a formal deal will still need to be approved by all 27 members of the European Union and ratified by the Parliament, where multiple blocs of parliamentarians oppose the deal. <\/p>\n
The\u00a0European Council noted that the next step\u00a0of\u00a0the process will be submitting the provisional\u00a0agreement\u00a0to member states for confirmation. <\/p>\n
Metsola said in a post\u00a0on\u00a0social media that \u201c20th December 2023 will go down in history. The day the\u00a0EU\u00a0reached a landmark\u00a0agreement\u00a0on\u00a0a new set\u00a0of\u00a0rules to manage\u00a0migration\u00a0and\u00a0asylum.\u201d <\/p>\n
Refugee charities have criticized the deal, along with members of the European Parliament. <\/p>\n
The European Council on Refugees and Exiles, an alliance of 117 NGOs working to protect asylum seekers,\u00a0said on social media that the deal marked a \u201cdark day for Europe.\u201d <\/p>\n
Amnesty International reacted to the\u00a0agreement\u00a0on\u00a0Wednesday, saying that it \u201cwill lead to a surge in suffering for\u00a0asylum\u00a0seekers, refugees\u00a0and\u00a0migrants\u00a0on\u00a0every step\u00a0of\u00a0their journeys.\u201d <\/p>\n
Migration, particularly the question of how to deal with the large influx of refugees that Europe has seen in recent years, has come to dominate European politics, particularly on the right. <\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s geographical location and comparatively friendly record on human rights and support for refugees has made it an attractive destination for those fleeing conflict. <\/p>\n
The EU has a vast external border, ranging from the Mediterranean Sea \u2013 close to parts of North Africa and the Middle East \u2013 to land borders with Russia in the east. Conflicts in these parts of the world over the past couple of decades have naturally led to many people seeking entry to Europe. <\/p>\n
The EU faces other unique challenges when it comes to irregular migration, not least because 22 of the 27 EU member states are part of the borderless Schengen area, which makes tracking movement across the bloc somewhat trickier. <\/p>\n
The frictionless movement is something that most Europeans don\u2019t want to give up for economic reasons, but a lack of control on migration is the other side of the coin. <\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, this creates ample opportunity for anti-EU politicians to whack Brussels, a tried and tested political strategy for politicians across the bloc. For opposition parties, it means you can hold your government\u2019s feet to the fire on domestic migration policy. <\/p>\n
The day before the EU reached its deal on migration, the French parliament passed a\u00a0controversial\u00a0immigration\u00a0bill, which France\u2019s leading far-right politician Marine Le Pen called an \u201cunquestionable ideological victory\u201d for her party. <\/p>\n\n
The European Union has reached a\u00a0provisional\u00a0agreement\u00a0to \u201cthoroughly overhaul\u201d its laws on\u00a0asylum\u00a0and\u00a0migration, a move being hailed as a landmark but which could face challenges when each member state comes to approve it. The deal covers the\u00a0political\u00a0elements\u00a0of\u00a0five\u00a0EU\u00a0laws that \u201ctouch upon all stages\u00a0of\u00a0asylum\u00a0and\u00a0migration\u00a0management,\u201d the\u00a0European Council said in a statement, adding that all five are components\u00a0of\u00a0the pact\u00a0on\u00a0migration\u00a0and\u00a0asylum\u00a0proposed by the\u00a0European <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}