EU Parliament Approves Emergency Migration Plan

EU MPs voted in favour of a number of proposals that constitute parliament's position for migration. The EU is expected to review its asylum strategy before the 2024 elections.

Eurodeputs adopted a set of migration proposals, including one urging members of the European Union to share the burden of housing migrants landing at periods when a high number of targets arrive.

The adopted proposals provide the basis for parliament's stance on the controversial topic of migration, ahead of negotiations with EU member states. The EU gives member states a year to reform their asylum system before the elections scheduled throughout Europe in May 2024.

“If we lose this chance to do this right, I don't think we'll have another,” news agency quoted the Associated Press, the Spanish socialist Eurodeput, Juan Fernando López Agililar. His message was type “, listen, if it doesn't happen this time, then it's never gonna happen. ”

However, diplomats say that, so far, there does not seem to be any step forward on the issue of mandatory displaced migrants from one country to another.

What does the new proposal contain?

EU MPs propose that if an EU country is hit by a massive and shocking wave of immigrants, a crisis mechanism will be activated throughout the EU to share responsibility for incoming migrants.

That means migrants can shift from country to country based on “reasonable connections” that they can have in some of the member states. These ties include family ties, cultural similarities, or connections from a country where they may have studied earlier.

The idea is that a well-advised shift would discourage migrants from looking into the future for a better place to settle, which will prolong the problem.

Countries such as Italy, Greece and Malta, in which major influxs of immigrants have reached across the Mediterranean in recent months, have called for division of the burden.