Victoria Madrid Martín
The new migration pact was voted yesterday in the European Parliament. After years of negotiation and great tension, the vote was held. The Spanish presidency of the European Union was key to making progress in the negotiations and was on the verge of reaching an agreement, but in the end there were complications.
The European parliament in Brussels. Source: Lili Bayer/The Guardian
The new pact, which aims to strike a blow against anti-immigration discourse in the face of the rise in popularity of the extreme right, seeks to strike a balance between "responsibility and solidarity", as president Roberta Metsola pointed out in X after the vote. However, it has ended up disappointing various groups in the same way. Yesterday 161 civil protection organisations issued a joint statement calling for a postponement of the vote on the grounds that the text violates human rights. Amnesty International and Oxfam had previously warned of the same. Protesters shouting "Don't vote, this pact kills" also entered the chamber during the session.
The pact will have to be voted on in the Council of the Union at the end of this month in order to be approved, thus counting on the vote of the member states. The pact will toughen asylum measures and allow for refoulements by rescinding the principle of solidarity that was put in place after the migration crisis in 2015. The process for returns will allow states to avoid that rule by paying 20,000 euros per person returned.
The final agreement has not pleased either the far right, which says it is too permissive, or the left, which says it goes too far in tightening access rules. It is a new point in the complex collage of the European elections to be held on 9th of June in Spain, during which polls predict a new victory for the European People's Party with 22% of the vote. The results of the elections can threaten the possibility of reforming the text in the future since the newly elected Parliament could be more radicalised.
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