On Friday, June 12, the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum enters into force, two years after it was signed into law. For the first time, all 27 member states must follow a single set of rules covering border screening, asylum procedures, reception conditions, and a solidarity mechanism for relocating asylum seekers between countries.
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The goal is to end a patchwork system where someone arriving in Greece faces an entirely different legal reality than someone arriving in Germany.
But ambition is already running into reality. The 2026 relocation target was 21,000; member states pledged fewer than half that number, with Hungary and Slovakia committing to none.
The Pact is only part of the story. Brussels has also approved the Return Regulation, one of its toughest migration laws in decades. Only 28 per cent of migrants ordered to leave Europe comply. The new rules introduce return hubs outside the EU, extend detention to 2 years, impose double-entry bans, and remove the suspensive effect of appeals. Over 250 civil society organisations have called it a legitimisation of “offshore prisons and child detention.”
The Commission’s first compliance review is scheduled for July. That’s when the EU will find out who’s on board and who isn’t.
