Opening statement Ylva Johansson 12 March 2024 - Commission takes stock of key achievements on migration and asylum

Open statement Ylva Johansson 12 March 2024

The agreement that we reached last December 2023 on the new pact, on migration and asylum was an historic decision. It took us four years to get there to rebuild the necessary trust between the Member States and also together with Parliament and other stakeholders, and I think one of the most important parts we could manage, to get this agreement was to realize that migration, managing migration is not a zero sum game. It's not about winners or losers. It is not which country will win or which will lose on this specific policy.

What we managed to reach was a situation where all member states realize that without a common agreement on migration, we are all losers. And the biggest losers are actually the migrants themselves. Because then we can't keep our whole house in order. But when we work together, we are so strong and then we are actually all winners, because we can achieve so much more when we are working together. We have shown that during these four years and it will be very much even more so with the new pact.

What is the most important part that we will achieve with the Pact is on the legislative files - a lot - it's a really comprehensive one. It covers almost everything.

But it's important it's EU legislation so it covers what we can do in the EU. In addition to the pact, we also need to do other things like fighting the smugglers, working with the third countries to manage migration. And to prevent dangerous departures, and to do the protection of refugees and also to invest in legal pathways.

But in the pact, we are strengthening the external borders. Everybody that arrives irregularly to our external borders will be screened and they will be channeled if they are probably not in need of international protection, they will have still access to the asylum procedure but the swifter one, and also with the swifter return decision already at the borders. This is important because we know that time is of the essence. The sooner you get a return decision, the more likely it is that the return actually will be executed.

Second, we also have a streamlining of the return decision together with an asylum decision so we will have swifter returns.

Third, we are closing loopholes that can be abused by asylum seekers. So it's not possible anymore with a pact to just abscond. And then get yourself another possibility to choose for example where to apply for asylum or to start from scratch again with your procedures.

Fourth, we are better protecting the rights of the asylum applicants, especially the vulnerable ones, and families with children and unaccompanied minors. And this is important that this has been significantly strengthened in the new pact and the last thing I would like to mention is the mandatory solidarity which for the first time ever, and it's really unprecedented that we have now in the law of the mandatory solidarity that no member states will be left alone. And this is really important. It's like an insurance. That of course we work together all the time. But if things go in a way that a specific member stays under pressure even in a crisis, other member states will step in significantly to support them.

I want to mention also that we also have other legislative files that are important for migration. One is the proposal I made on the possibility to withdraw the visa free regime with countries. Why is this important? Because last year when we had 380,000 Irregular arrivals to the EU, we had 1.1 million asylum applications. That means that they irregularly arrived migrants only counts for 1/3 of the asylum application.

23% of the asylum applications come from people that arrived here visa free - just one example. So it's important also to make sure that we have the right people into the asylum process. We also need to look into to the asylum application.

The last thing I would like to say is what also migrate is mentioned is the importance of the external dimension that we work with our partner countries. And I can tell you that I've been traveling a lot during these years to third countries and arguing and have also agreements with them on how to manage migration together, and every time they start to say; So you're coming here to get support and to cooperate on managing migration. But what about your own house? You should put your own house in order.

And now we will put our own house in order and that will have a global impact.

Thank you