Unpacking the Pact: Winners and Losers of the New EU Migration Deal

The author argues that the EU's new Pact on Migration and Asylum represents a victory for immigration hardliners by expanding border procedures and reducing protection standards. The deal maintains the problematic Dublin rules and introduces a 'flexible' solidarity mechanism that allows member states to avoid relocating asylum seekers through financial contributions. The author contends that the pact increases the risk of detention and pushbacks at external borders, particularly impacting Mediterranean countries and refugees, while potentially benefiting smugglers.

• The agreement reduces protection standards in the EU by expanding the use of border, inadmissibility, and accelerated procedures, which may lead to more people being detained at borders in a manner similar to the 'Greek islands model'.
• The pact maintains the core dysfunction of the Dublin rules, keeping the country of first entry responsible for processing asylum requests, though it adjusts the duration of this responsibility to 15 months after a border procedure rejection and 12 months for those rescued at sea.
• A mandatory but flexible solidarity mechanism is introduced to compensate border countries during 'migratory pressure'. Member states can choose between relocating people, providing capacity-building support, or making financial contributions, with the financial equivalent of one relocation set at 20,000 euros.
• The deal relies on the 'safe third country' concept to transfer responsibility to non-EU nations, specifically targeting North Africa and the Western Balkans, despite the fact that over 80% of global refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries outside the EU.
• The author identifies the 'winners' of the deal as the European Commission, the Swedish presidency, and hardline states like France and the Netherlands, while the 'losers' include refugees, the German government, and the five Mediterranean EU countries (Malta, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Spain).

APA

Woollard, C. (2023). Unpacking the Pact: Winners and Losers of the New EU Migration Deal. Green European Journal. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/unpacking-the-pact-winners-and-losers-of-the-new-eu-migration-deal/

Chicago

Woollard, Catherine. Unpacking the Pact: Winners and Losers of the New EU Migration Deal. Green European Journal, 2023. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/unpacking-the-pact-winners-and-losers-of-the-new-eu-migration-deal/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Woollard |first1=Catherine |title=Unpacking the Pact: Winners and Losers of the New EU Migration Deal |publisher=Green European Journal |date=14 June 2023 |url=https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/unpacking-the-pact-winners-and-losers-of-the-new-eu-migration-deal/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{woollard2023unpacking, author = {Woollard, Catherine}, title = {{Unpacking the Pact: Winners and Losers of the New EU Migration Deal}}, institution = {Green European Journal}, year = {2023}, month = jun, url = {https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/unpacking-the-pact-winners-and-losers-of-the-new-eu-migration-deal/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }