The Council of the European Union announced the formal adoption of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum on Tuesday, taking steps to reform the bloc’s asylum and migration system, despite opposition from Hungary and Poland. The reform establishes a structured approach to arrivals, streamlining procedures and ensuring equitable burden sharing between member states.

The Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces five key principles, including stricter regulations aimed at broadening applicant screening, health and security checks, expediting examination procedures and providing free counseling services. The main innovation of the pact is the new system of “mandatory solidarity,” which would give governments three options to manage asylum seekers: relocate a certain number, pay €20,000 for each person they reject or fund operational support.

The adoption of the pact has not been an easy task, with the initial concept posited amidst the 2015-2016 migration crisis, when there were over a million arrivals into the bloc. Since then, migration has remained a central concern for EU nations, with some member states being more affected by arrivals. A new approach was put forward in 2020, which aimed to distribute responsibility between member states and improve procedural efficiency. Hungary and Poland have been vocal critics of the new pact and they voted against the entire set of proposed reforms. The Czech Republic and Slovakia abstained from the vote and Austria also voted against the regulation.

The new pact only requires a qualified majority for formal ratification, which it achieved in a step that the Council of Europe has hailed as “a landmark reform of the European asylum and migration system.”

Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor said:

The asylum and migration pact will ensure a fairer and stronger migration system that makes a concrete difference on the ground. These new rules will make the European asylum system more effective and increase solidarity between member states. The European Union will also continue its close cooperation with third countries to tackle the root causes of irregular migration. Only jointly can we find responses to the global migration challenge.

Member states will now have a two-year window to implement the laws, with the European Commission providing an implementation plan later this year to support member states.