Overview
- Interior ministers settled on a Danish-presidency compromise of 21,000 annual relocations or €420 million in financial support.
- The package authorizes external return centres, tighter expulsions, and transfers to designated safe third countries, pending European Parliament ratification.
- A redistribution-or-pay system would require countries to host relocated asylum seekers or pay €20,000 per applicant to states under pressure.
- Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, and Poland won the option to seek full or partial deductions from solidarity contributions due to accumulated migration pressure.
- Implementation of the pact’s relocation mechanism is scheduled to start on 12 June 2026, as rights groups warn of legal and humanitarian risks.