Today’s news / EU – asylum and migration rules
It will be mandatory for EU countries to help each other in the event of an asylum and migration crisis. But the agreement opens up for the fact that the help does not have to be the reception of asylum seekers. Instead, it may be financial assistance or assistance in processing asylum seekers. It is now urgent to reach an agreement with the European Parliament, says Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas. Photo: Jean-Francois Badias/Ritzau Scanpix

EU – asylum and migration rules

EU countries have agreed on a revision of asylum and migration rules, the Spanish EU Presidency announced Wednesday. The agreement was reached at a meeting of member states’ ambassadors in Brussels. This opens the way for the EU possibly to have a common asylum and migration pact in place before the European elections next year. The rules must now be negotiated with the European Parliament before the agreement is finally in place. “Today we have taken a major step forward in an area that is crucial for the future of the European Union,” Spain’s acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez said in a statement. “With today’s agreement, we are now in a better position to reach an agreement on the entire asylum and migration pact with the European Parliament by the end of this semester,” he said./ritzau/