The agreement is reached, the EU takes the decision on asylum seekers/ The talks lasted about 12 hours and the text was changed several times, here is what the agreement contains

Asylum seekers who have no chance of being accepted from now on will be verified and returned at the border. EU asylum rules will only apply to a small number of Asian applicants.

Throughout the day on Thursday (07.06.2023) the 27 interior ministers of the EU countries discussed in Luxembourg to achieve the approval of the extended reform of the asylum procedure that has been prepared for years and for controlled migration. "There is light at the end of the tunnel," said one delegate during talks that lasted about 12 hours. The Swedish President of the Council, Maria Malmer Stenergard, interrupted the meeting three times, and after the refusal of the delegations, the text of the agreement was changed several times.

Eventually the biggest EU states like Germany and Italy agreed, but not the smaller countries. The decision was ultimately taken by a qualified majority from countries representing 65 percent of the EU's population, rather than unanimously. Poland and Hungary voted against, which continue to reject the rules of a common migration policy in the EU.

Accept asylum seekers or pay

The national-conservative Interior Minister of Poland, Mariusz Kaminski, e.g. declared that Poland will not pay compensation to an EU fund for rejected asylum seekers. This compensation, 20,000 euros per asylum seeker, is necessary according to the new rules of solidarity, in case a country does not accept as many asylum seekers as it should be affordable based on the number of its population.

Migration expert Helena Hahn from the Think Tank "European Policy Centre" expresses doubt, whether this new system will succeed: "We saw in the end, that the agreement meets the resistance of some member countries like Poland. These countries say that the costs are too high. Therefore, it is expected that there will be more opposition to the agreement."