“Migration is a standard European problem — at the moment’s determination will permit us to handle it collectively,” tweeted Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Fee.
The truth that the settlement was reached in any respect is revealing. The 27-member union has lengthy struggled to seek out widespread floor on the problem. After the pandemic years when migration fell off political agendas — particularly amid journey bans and closed borders — the problem roared again to marketing campaign levels and elections.
Over the previous yr, an uptick in arrivals and the politicization of asylum and refugee coverage have elevated it in lots of capitals, including momentum to E.U. efforts. Anti-migrant voter sentiment propelled the far proper to contemporary victories in bastions of social liberalism just like the Netherlands, whereas dominating the political debate in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and past.
Throughout the first 11 months of 2023, the continent noticed a 17 p.c bounce in irregular arrivals in contrast with the identical interval a yr earlier. The greater than 355,000 arrivals amounted to the best numbers since 2016, when the area noticed a historic inflow led by refugees fleeing the Syrian civil warfare.
Beatriz Rios in Granada, Spain, contributed to this report.