Pact on Migration and Asylum: Presidency committed to bringing Member States even closer together

With regard to the Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union has committed itself to “bringing the positions of the Member States closer together” by the end of the present six-month period.

The Portuguese Minister for Home Affairs, Eduardo Cabrita, who chaired the informal videoconference of Home Affairs Ministers yesterday, reports that there is “progress” in the negotiation between the 27, emphasising the commitment of the Portuguese Presidency and the European Commission to finding a “balance between responsibility and solidarity” in the external aspect of migration and the relationship with third countries.

Eduardo Cabrita added that the Member States have made advances “on the technical level” in many of the dossiers that make up this agenda, for example, the regulation on the European Asylum Support Office, and that they are “very close to an overall agreement on the new asylum regulations”. Debate on these matters will continue into next week, when the Foreign Affairs Ministers and those holding the Home Affairs portfolios are to have a meeting.