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5 October 2020

Dear John xxxxxx,

Later this week, interior ministers from the European Union's 27 Member States will gather to discuss the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum recently put forward by the European Commission.

The complex document represents a last-gasp effort to set forward a plan that keeps all 27 countries at the table amid a widening gulf that has some open to accepting their fair share of asylum seekers even as the increasingly fractious Visegrad-Austria-Denmark group rejects the vision for burden-sharing articulated in the Common European Asylum System.

While the pact has been criticised by many, Migration Policy Institute Europe Director Hanne Beirens argues in a new commentary that introduction of solidarity à la carte may be the only thing that keeps the European Union from an abyss in which 27 national governments each determine the fate of migrants and refugees in their own way -- practically guaranteeing future conflicts between countries and new uncertainty for refugees and migrants as to rights and treatment.

The pact proposes to accommodate the Visegrad group's notion of 'flexible solidarity' by carving out a role for the Hungaries and Austrias of the continent to effectively become what Beirens calls 'the bouncers of Europe', making them take on external border management and/or return of rejected asylum seekers.

'By recognising the different ideological and political realities, and crafting a vision that creates a role for each Member State based on what it is willing to do rather than perpetuating a one-size-fits-all approach that has patently failed, Commission officials have put forward a bold strategy that responds to the political demands and constraints of the present day,' she writes.

The commentary notes that the pact is far from perfect and undeniably requires revision. Still, Beirens writes, it 'offers an eleventh-hour opportunity for Europe to develop a more productive, unified approach on migration and asylum that stands a chance of working'.

You can read the commentary here: [link removed].

Best regards,

Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications
Migration Policy Institute Europe


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MPI Europe provides authoritative research and practical policy design to governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders who seek more effective management of immigration, immigrant integration, and asylum systems, as well as better outcomes for newcomers, families of immigrant background, and receiving communities throughout Europe. MPI Europe also provides a forum for the exchange of information on migration and immigrant integration practices within the European Union and Europe more generally. For more, visit www.mpieurope.org.

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