Portugal ‘will fight to last minute’ to seal migration pact

This ‘Horizontal Substitute Impact Assessment of the European Commission’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum’ was requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). The impact assessment focuses on the main proposed changes implied by the European Commission’s New Pact, with a particular focus on the following four proposals: 1) Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (RAMM); 2) Crisis and Force Majeure Regulation; 3) Amended Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR); and 4) Screening Regulation. The horizontal substitute impact assessment critically assesses the ‘system’ and underlying logic of the proposed New Pact with the aim to analyse how the four Commission proposals would work and interact in practice. The impact assessment also assesses whether and to what extent the proposed New Pact addresses the identified shortcomings and implementational problems of the current EU asylum and migration law and policy. Moreover, the impact assessment identifies and assesses the expected impacts on fundamental rights, as well as economic, social and territorial impacts of the proposed New Pact.

Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has acknowledged that progress on the new Pact for Migration and Asylum, proposed by the European Commission in September, has been “slow”.

Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer and Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis signalled a common position on European migration issues after talks in Vienna on Sunday (13 June). “The European Commission should speed up the implementation of the refugee readmission agreement…

The EU-India bilateral summit which had been planned to take place during Portugal’s presidency of the Council of the EU has been postponed until the leaders involved can attend in person, Portugal’s minister of foreign affairs confirmed on Tuesday (5 May).

The European Commission is considering future presidencies after Portugal’s presidency as a ‘plan B’ should Portugal fail to reach consensus in the Council on the definition of minimum wages, according to EU Employment Commissioner Nicolas Schmit.