20 December 2023 The New Pact on Migration and Asylum agreed earlier today by EU Member States and the European Parliament after years of complex negotiations will, without a doubt, go down in history as a signal political accomplishment. But what will its actual results be in terms of improving migration and asylum systems and processes, while protecting fundamental rights? Much will turn on how the pact is implemented and how its results are communicated to European publics that have grown restive over real and perceived migration management failures, MPI Europe’s Hanne Beirens and Camille Le Coz write in a commentary out today. ‘The answer is no one yet knows whether, in the rearview mirror, this hard-won compromise will have been a success or failure in moving towards more resilient and rights-respecting migration and asylum systems’, they write. ‘The ability to translate the pact’s dense legal language into practice, and into a system that is effective for migrants and host communities alike, will be what makes or breaks it’. Still, they call the pact historic, not least because Member States’ verbal commitments to responsibility sharing and solidarity now become an actual legal obligation. And while the pact does not close the trajectory toward further externalisation arrangements as seen, for example, with the Italy-Albania and UK-Rwanda deals, it offers a future where such accords can coexist with maintenance of the right to asylum. ‘The pact’s approval marks a significant political win for European policymakers, but there is a very long road ahead to build back migration and asylum systems that are efficient and credible—to European publics and migrants alike’, they conclude. Read the commentary in full here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/new-pact-migration-asylum. Wishing you best regards and happy holidays, Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications
MPI Europe | 
