Von der Leyen agrees €7.4bn aid programme for Egypt
The EU finalised an economic investment and migration pact with Egypt on Sunday (17 March) that will be worth €7.4bn to Cairo over the coming four years.
Tuesday
19th Mar 2024
The EU finalised an economic investment and migration pact with Egypt on Sunday (17 March) that will be worth €7.4bn to Cairo over the coming four years.
Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.
The EU's border agency Frontex has defended its position of not issuing an alert on an overcrowded fishing vessel that sank off the Greek coast last year, which claimed over 600 lives.
Egypt expects to receive between $5-$6bn [€4.6-€6.5bn] in funding from the EU under a major 'cash for migrant control' pact which is set to be finalised this weekend when EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen travels to Cairo.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, backs her European People's Party proposals to offshore asylum abroad — in what appears to mimic a controversial UK plan to send people to Rwanda.
The EU's administrative watchdog has faulted the European Commission for maladministration over its lack of transparency in its 'do no harm' policy in Libya.
Divisions over migration policy within the European Commission have opened ahead of the European elections.
MEPs are becoming increasingly frustrated with the EU Commission for pumping €150m into Tunisia, amid accusations the EU Parliament is being sidelined.
The European Commission is talking to Senegal following reports an EU-trained security force, meant to tackle cross border crime, was instead used to crack down on peaceful protestors.
Germany is expanding agreements to return rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin as part of a wider shift in Europe to curtail migration. Berlin has reached deals with Georgia and Morocco since December.
Fewer than one-in-ten Ukrainian refugees intend to settle permanently outside Ukraine, according to new research by the associate director of research and the director of gender and economic inclusion at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.
Fabrice Leggeri, the ex-Frontex boss who has now joined the French far-right National Rally, is a product of the internal contradictions at the EU: the competing interests among EU states and a European Commission too weak to manage their demands.
A so-called Rwanda clause slipped into the overhaul of EU asylum law will undermine the UN refugee convention, say critics.
An independent Greek authority probing the deadly Pylos shipwreck is posing questions eight months later on whether the Greek coast guard had even been tasked to carry out a search and rescue.
Minutes from EU coreper meetings obtained by Investigate Europe expose how a host of governments secretly worked to influence and harden the proposals in the EU Migration and Asylum Pact.
The EU Commission has so far chosen an alarming, if not collusive, stance on the legality of the Italy-Albania migration deal, writes Amnesty International's researcher on migration in Europe.
Over 200 academics spanning 66 mostly European universities are raising the alarm on new EU asylum rules they say will lead to mass detentions and erode rights.
The Belgian EU presidency wants to implement a recent overhaul of EU asylum laws, amid warnings that detention-like centres will mushroom as a result.
The EU has entered a "golden age" of relations with Egypt, says the European Commission — as it deepens cooperation with a repressive state known for widespread human rights abuses.
Hungary is ratcheting up its rhetoric against migrants and LGBTi rights amid an on-going standoff with the EU over frozen funds following an acrimonious debate in the European Parliament on stripping Budapest of its EU voting rights.
Extremist political messaging on clamping down on asylum ahead of elections may actually drive more people towards Europe, says a Vienna-based institute.
Greece was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving the deadly 2014 shooting of a Syrian refugee by the Greek coast guard.
The European Commission says it discussed with Cypriot authorities the 5 January bombing of an NGO fighting racism in Nicosia. "The bomb attack ... and the authorities' reluctance to even acknowledge it, are a wake-up call for Europe," said Kisa.
Germany has pledged to resettle more UN-screened refugees than any other EU member state, with around 13,000 — spread out over a two-year period.
Cyprus is demanding that parts of Syria be designated safe enough to return prospective Syrian asylum seekers, an assertion that the island-nation has been pressing for months.
The EU needs a million migrants annually to make up for a demographic shortfall, says the European Commission.
Charity vessels operating in the Mediterranean were detained at least 13 times last year under an Italian decree that curtails rescue efforts, according to civil society groups. And the requirement to immediately sail to distant ports inflates fuel costs.
The new Belgian EU presidency wants to expand migration-busting relations with countries in Africa — following the bloc's controversial agreement with Tunisia last summer.
Following years of debates, a political agreement on the EU-wide asylum reforms was finally reached on Wednesday (20 December).
EUobserver interviewed the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) to discuss labour migration, staff shortages and working conditions — in views that strongly clash with the EU Commission's plan to attract more legal migrants.
Rights defenders are issuing dire warnings that the EU's asylum overhaul risks curtailing international protection standards.
The European Commission is hoping to reach a new agreement with Egypt in January as it steps up efforts to curtail irregular migration towards Europe.
The European Commission is praising Finland for shutting down its land borders with Russia despite reports prospective asylum seekers are being forcibly conscripted to fight in Ukraine.