Overview
- Ministers approved an EU-wide safe-country list — Egypt, Bangladesh, India, Colombia, Kosovo, Morocco and Tunisia — enabling accelerated asylum procedures at the external border.
- A binding solidarity pool was agreed that requires relocations of 21,000 people for the second half of 2026 (30,000 for a full year) or about €20,000 per person in contributions, with offset rules that limit actual relocations.
- A phased system for common return orders will start with a shared form in the Schengen Information System, with mutual recognition becoming mandatory after two years alongside stricter detention and deportation provisions.
- Germany’s Alexander Dobrindt said Italy and Greece agreed to resume Dublin returns from June 2026, describing bilateral understandings aligned with the asylum pact’s start date.
- Plans for external return or processing centers advanced and drew legal objections from several states, and the overall package still requires European Parliament sign-off and will face implementation tests.