Response to the migration crisis and force majeure situations

Response to crisis situations

The new regulation on crisis situations and force majeure provides for appropriate procedural rules, derogations and a rapid triggering of solidarity mechanisms to respond to crisis situations, such as the 2015 migration crisis.

Irregular arrivals in the EU have decreased significantly since the peak of the migration crisis in 2015.

Text version

Total irregular arrivals to the EU have dropped from 1.04 million in 2015 to 0.28 million in 2023.

The breakdown per migratory route in 2024 is as follows:

Eastern route: 3 995 arrivals
Central route: 1 533 arrivals
Western routes: 8 067 arrivals

The new instrument would cover mass arrivals of third-country nationals or stateless persons in an EU country, of such a scale and nature that they would:

render a member state’s asylum, reception or return system non-functional
be likely to have serious consequences for the functioning of the common European asylum system and of the EU migration management system

Member states would be authorised to derogate from certain rules, for instance concerning the registration of asylum applications or the asylum border procedure. The new rules are applicable in situations:

involving mass arrivals of refugees in one or more member states
where migrants are instrumentalised for political purposes to overwhelm the capacities of and destabilise the member state of destination
of force majeure, such as a pandemic, like the COVID-19 crisis, or a natural disaster

These exceptional measures, as well as other solidarity support first require authorisation from the Council.

Measures

When a member state is facing any of the situations described above, that member state can request authorisation to apply derogations from the common procedures or to benefit from solidarity measures.

The Commission will analyse the situation and, if it is confirmed, adopt a Commission implementing decision establishing the situation of crisis or force majeure. The Commission may also propose a Council implementing decision.

Once this decision has been adopted by the Council, the relevant derogations can be applied and the member state can benefit from relevant solidarity measures. Not only is the Commission tasked with monitoring and reviewing the situation, it can also propose to repeal or extend the Council implementing decision. The measures put in place will last for a period of three months, renewable up to a maximum of 12 months.

Time limits

In order to ease the pressure on an EU country experiencing a mass arrival of people applying for asylum, the following derogations from the timelines are implemented.

Certain periods may be extended, such as for:

registering applications for international protection to four weeks

completing the border procedure by an additional period of six weeks

sending requests and notifications and for taking back persons for which the member state in crisis is responsible but that are found in another member state

Derogations

As a further exception in situations of crisis, the new measures allow member states to:

change the criteria for the border procedure either to reduce the number of applications that are examined at the border or to extend the use of the border procedure so that all applications are examined at the border, with special safeguards established for vulnerable groups
be relieved of their obligation to take back asylum seekers for which they are responsible from another EU country (required in normal circumstances)

Solidarity and support measures

A member state facing a crisis situation may request solidarity contributions from other EU countries. These contributions are similar as those agreed under the new asylum and migration management regulation:

relocation of asylum seekers and of beneficiaries of international protection

financial contributions, including in third countries

alternative solidarity measures such as capacity building or deployment of personnel

The overall goal of these measures is to ensure that no member state should shoulder a disproportionate responsibility and all member states should contribute to solidarity on a constant basis.

Only if the relocation measures do not cover all of a member state’s needs will responsibility offsets become mandatory, whereby a supporting member state takes responsibility for examining the asylum applications of persons who are on its territory but who ordinarily should be taken back by the member state experiencing the crisis situation. Since all needs must be covered in situations of crisis, a given member state may have to contribute more than its fair share, but in that case, that member state would be entitled to recoup this at a later stage.

In times of crisis, the EU solidarity coordinator’s role is to support relocations and to promote a culture of preparedness amongst the member states.

Expediated procedure

Where large groups of applicants are arriving from a specific country or region of origin and are likely to be in need of protection, the Commission can adopt a recommendation for the application of an expedited procedure.

This procedure allows for the omission of the personal interview and should be concluded in less than four weeks.

Work on the migration and asylum pact

On 4 October 2023, member states reached agreement on their negotiating mandate on a regulation on crisis situations, including instrumentalisation of migration, and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum.

On 20 December 2023, the Council and the European Parliament reached a deal on this new legislation for exceptional circumstances, as well as many other files in the migration and asylum pact.

On 8 February 2024, EU member states' representatives endorsed the deal reached on the various legislative acts in December, as well as three laws which had previously been agreed on between the Council and the Parliament in 2022. An updated return border regulation was also approved by the member states’ representatives.

The Council adopted the EU's pact on migration and asylum on 14 May 2024.