‘It is us who decided who is coming’- VdL presents keypoints of EU migration reform at Granada Summit

« European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen summarised the main keypoints for the European Union’s new migration regulation proposal during her speech at the informal EU summit in Granada.
Von der Leyen said the new measures are set on understanding origin and transit countries, strengthening the importance of legal pathways and humanitarian corridors, fighting ‘smugglers’, supporting transit countries dealing with migration and returning irregular migrants to their origin countries.
« We cannot accept that smugglers and traffickers decide who is coming to the European Union. It is us who decide who is coming to the European Union, who gets asylum here, but also who has access to the labour market and therefore very clearly this legal pathway », said Von der Leyen.
On Wednesday, envoys from EU member countries reached a deal on ‘crisis regulation’ for asylum seekers, emergency measures that can be taken in the event of mass, unforeseen migration.
However, Hungary and Poland opposed the agreement reached by the bloc, stating that the decisions should have been taken by consensus.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that despite Poland and Hungary’s opposition to EU migration policy reforms, that does not mean a final pact on the issue is not plausible. The EU hopes to introduce the changes into law before the next round of elections.
World leaders gathered in Granada for the 3rd meeting of the European Political Community Summit, which includes 27 EU members and neighbouring countries, to discuss the bloc’s strategic priorities. EU enlargement and migration were among the discussed topics. »



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