EU parliament adopts sweeping asylum reform

The EU parliament on Wednesday adopted a contentious reform of Europe's asylum policies that will both harden border procedures and force all the bloc's 27 nations to share responsibility.

The parliament's main political groups overcame opposition from far-right and far-left parties to pass the new migration and asylum pact – a sweeping reform nearly a decade in the making.

Ten pieces of legislation in the overhaul were passed.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the new rules a "historic, indispensable step" for the European Union.

The migration minister for Greece, one of the countries worst affected by arrivals of growing numbers of undocumented migrants, echoed this comment. "This is a major breakthrough and a very important step towards a common, and therefore more effective, management of the migration challenges of our time," Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the adoption of this reform was a "huge achievement for Europe". "Today is indeed a historic day," the European Commission president told a news conference after the European Parliament adopted the reform.

However, outside the Brussels parliament building, dozens of demonstrators protested against the vote, echoing criticism from more than 160 migrant charities and non-governmental organizations who view it as a betrayal of European Union values.

For the far-left, the reforms – which include building border centers to hold asylum seekers and sending some to outside "safe" countries – were incompatible with Europe's commitment to upholding human rights.

It was "a pact with the devil," said Damien Careme, a lawmaker from the Greens group.

The pact's measures are to come into force in 2026, after the European Commission sets out in coming months how it would be implemented.

The new border centers would hold irregular migrants while their asylum requests are vetted, and speed up deportations of those deemed inadmissible.

It would also require EU countries to take in thousands of asylum seekers from "frontline" states such as Italy and Greece. Alternatively, they could provide money or other resources to the under-pressure nations.

A controversial measure is the sending of asylum seekers to countries outside the EU that are deemed "safe", if the migrant has sufficient ties to that country.

The pact has wended through years of thorny talks and compromises ever since the bloc was confronted with large numbers of irregular migrants who arrived in 2015, many from war-torn Syria.

Under current EU rules, the arrival country bears responsibility for hosting and vetting asylum seekers, and returning those deemed inadmissible. That has put southern states under pressure and fueled far-right sentiment.