News - European Commission to propose measures to tighten EU migration policy

The European Commission will propose measures to tighten the European Union's stance on migration in response to pressure from governments across the bloc for whom irregular migrants have become a major political and security issue, Reuters reported.Ursula von der Leyen, who heads the European Union's executive arm, wrote to EU leaders who will meet Oct. 17-18 to discuss migration that the European Commission intends to address 10 issues to help the bloc's 27 countries cope with migration challenges.“Within the framework of the upcoming mandate, the Commission ... will continue to... ensure a fair and firm stance on migration, tackling what is widely seen as a European problem,” it wrote.The European Commission's new term is likely to begin on December 1. Irregular migrants arriving in Europe last year were less than a third of the 1 million people at the peak of the migration crisis in 2015. But migration remains a highly sensitive topic, influencing elections in most European countries and fueling far-right voter sentiment.In May, the EU agreed on a new set of rules and procedures to deal with migration issues, called the Migration Pact, but it is not expected to be fully implemented until mid-2026, leaving the bloc facing a difficult transition period. In her letter to European leaders, von der Leyen suggested speeding up implementation of the pact to help governments better manage their refugee registration and admission systems.This would help asylum procedures in cases of security breaches and abusive or unsubstantiated asylum claims at borders, she said, and would eliminate loopholes between asylum and return processes.She also suggested more agreements with countries from which migrants arrive or transit to stop them there, similar to EU agreements with Turkey, Tunisia or Libya, whose governments receive money from the EU to fight illegal border crossings and smuggling.Von der Leyen mentioned Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali as countries with which the EU should cooperate.