Brussels – It is a kind of political testament of this outgoing European Commission on migration and asylum, in view of a possible new executive still led by Ursula von der Leyen, but with the political context and institutional narrative now radically changed and some protagonists leaving the scene. After the legislative process that lasted an entire parliamentary term and its entry into force yesterday (11 June), the Migration and Asylum Pact entered the implementation phase, which will last exactly two years before full entry into force on 12 June 2026. “With the Joint Implementation Plan, we move to operational and pragmatic implementation to make a difference on the ground,” is the promise of European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, who arrived almost at the end of her office at the Berlaymont.
Awaited since late April, the Joint Implementation Plan unveiled today (June 12) by the Union executive is based on 10 building blocks, as the commissioner calls them, that are “all to be implemented and interdependent” to enable the proper functioning of a very complex piece of legislation. To clarify the need to implement all the pieces of the Migration and Asylum Pact coherently, the Commission provides different examples: “A good reception system (block 3) will become overburdened if procedures are not carried out in a timely manner (block 4) or if beneficiaries of international protection stay too long in the housing intended for applicants (block 10).” Moreover, “solidarity (block 7) and accountability (block 6) or the new system for managing migration flows at the EU’s external borders (block 2) will not be operational if EURODAC (block 1) is not operational in time,” recalling that “respect for guarantees and rights (block 9) is a cross-cutting dimension of all legislative acts and something that will have to be made operational in each of the blocks.”
The Joint Implementation Plan is the cornerstone for the Commission’s support to member countries, but the real work lies with the 27 capitals. And it is already starting now because the deadline for establishing their respective timetables and actions for implementing the Migration and Asylum Pact must be submitted exactly six months from today: “Each member state must establish a national implementation plan by December 12, 2024,” announced Home Affairs Commissioner of the von der Leyen cabinet. The date is a few weeks earlier than had been rumoured in recent months (the deadline was scheduled for January 2025), as is the date for submission of draft national plans, “by October 2024”, in order to receive support from the Commission in time. Meanwhile, the deadline for establishing national coordination structures and appointing the national coordinator remains July 1. “Each Member State has different challenges to face and is at different starting points,” which is why national implementation plans must “map the current situation, including the national context, the existing legislative framework and administrative practices, the existing organizational set-up and structures, existing capacities, and challenges related to geographical circumstances.” 
With the Joint Implementation Plan, the Commission makes a number of suggestions to the member states, such as the approach of work on the basis of an inter-ministerial and cross-sectoral task force, the assessment of costs on the basis of national budget cycles and EU funds, but also a whole series of concrete measures: reviewing national legal frameworks and making the necessary adjustments, reviewing organizational arrangements and capacities in terms of human resources, providing for an overall increase and taking into account the different qualifications required. This also includes identifying activities to be outsourced (to bar associations, NGOs, private entities) and monitoring mechanisms, examining needs in terms of physical infrastructure “for reception and detention on the territory and at the borders, IT infrastructure, equipment and security environment.
Finally, regarding the timetable for the implementation of the Migration and Asylum Pact between June 12, 2024, and June 12, 2026, the European Commission announced that it will adopt “by the first half of 2025” the decision to allocate funds for national programs in the context of the mid-term review of the Border and Visa Management Instrument (BMVI) and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). National contingency plans are also to be submitted by member states by April 2025 and national strategies by June/July, while the first half of next year will also be decisive for other issues: the allocation of funds from the mid-term review of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027 “through the Thematic Instrument,” and member states are to initiate procurement of equipment and construction activities and the recruitment process.
The basis of the Migration and Asylum Pact
The basis on which the new, very complex system of the Migration and Asylum Pact (here a detailed explanation) is set is the relationship between solidarity and responsibility in the management of migrants among the twenty-seven countries. The former concept permeates the Regulation for the Management of Asylum and Migration (RAMM), which in no way overrides the cardinal principle of the 2013 Dublin Regulation, namely that the task of examining the asylum claim of a person who irregularly enters EU territory rests with the first EU member state to which they enter. Countries such as Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, and Spain will be responsible for the claims, while other member states who want to “dublin” (i.e., extradite) these migrants (including minors and those seeking reunification with siblings) will simply have to send a notification, no longer a reciprocal due process request with the agreement of the country of first arrival as is the case today.
After the Regulation enters into force (24 months after its publication in the EU Official Journal), the now famous mandatory solidarity mechanism will be introduced for all twenty-seven countries (based on GDP and population), which puts on the same level three forms of solidarity: placements of migrants, financial contributions or support to third countries. Contributions to member countries can be directed not only to reception systems, but also to funding of fixed and mobile border facilities through the Border and Visa Management Instrument (BMVI) and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). There is no mandatory relocation for migrants disembarked after search and rescue operations at sea, and for those under the Ramm procedure, there is no legal representation, only counselling
The concept of accountability is particularly linked to the Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR), which increases only those provided for countries of first entry. It will apply automatically in case of risk for security threat issues (including unaccompanied minors), of “deception of authorities”, or if the migrant person comes from a country with a recognition rate of less than 20 per cent. Border procedures will provide de facto detention, with no exemptions even for families with children under 12, nor legal representation, nor a stay for appeals against most decisions (the exception is for inadmissibility of those based on the concept of “safe third country” and for unaccompanied minors).
Crucial to this Regulation is precisely the concept of “safe third country,” for which both an EU list and national lists are provided to justify and expedite rapid returns out of the Union, unless there are ties of the individual person to the state in question that preclude their safety. New accountability obligations include completing the examination of an asylum application through the border procedure within six months(APR), but also extending the period of responsibility for handling applications for 20 months and maintaining at 12 months that for search and rescue operations at sea (RAMM). The annual ceiling for border procedures is set at 30,000 people, determined on the basis of a formula that takes into account the number of irregular border crossings and the number of expulsions in the previous three years.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
