EU migration reform: human dignity and international law

As EU member states prepare to implement the bloc’s most comprehensive migration reform in ten years, European Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said Euronews that he had recently raised the issue with Pope Leo XIV.

ADVERTISING

ADVERTISING

“I had the opportunity to meet the pope a few months ago and had a conversation with him precisely on this subject,†Brunner said on Europe Today, Europe’s flagship morning show.Euronews.

“Human dignity, international law, all of this is at the heart of the reform. These principles are non-negotiable. This is really essential for us, as legislators and as the European Commission.”

The sovereign pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, recently visited the Canary Islands in Spain, a former hotspot for migratory flows.

“Human dignity has no passport and does not lose its value by crossing a border,” he declared Thursday, surrounded by rescue ships at the dock and a wooden cross made from a wrecked migrant boat.

These statements come a few days after the Pope received a seven-minute standing ovation in the Spanish Parliament, where he notably called for better protection and more “love” for the most fragile lives, among other messages.

Euronews asked Magnus Brunner if the positions of the Pope and Brussels, particularly those which had provoked loud applause in Madrid, were compatible. “Absolutely, yes,” he replied.

The migration pact

The pact was welcomed by certain capitals; in a message published on the X platform (in German)German Chancellor Friedrich Merz assured that from Friday there would be “better control, more order, faster procedures and a fair distribution of responsibilities”.

But it is also very criticized: Amnesty International (in English) has called the proposal “cruel”, while former detainees from similar offshore deportation centers in Australia have already warned European lawmakers of the future “tragedy”.

The pact covers ten major legislative files, ranging from strengthening border controls to speeding up procedures, and is linked to the EU regulation on returns, which paves the way for the creation of ‘return centres’. These are removal centers set up outside the EU, responsible for sending people whose residence application has been rejected to their country of origin.

The United Kingdom tried to set up a return center in Rwanda, before the project was invalidated by the courts in 2022. Two years later, Italy created two return centers in Albania, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni subsequently saying that this was the model followed by the EU.

According to the latest data from the European Commission, only 29% of people whose request for residence was ultimately rejected by the courts were sent back during the last quarter. But figures from Frontex, the European border guard agency, show that irregular border crossings have been falling year on year since 2021, currently standing at around 178,000.

“It is simply not acceptable that currently only one in four people, among those who do not have the right to stay in the European Union, are sent back,†Magnus Brunner said. Euronewsadding that the “returns regulation” was the missing piece of the pact. “We need to put our European house in order,” he added.

“We have new rules, firm but also fair… This is the first time that we really have a global system, a global system on a European scale, with better controls, checks at the external borders of the Union and asylum procedures at the border, which will be more efficient and faster. HAS”