“Migration is a common European challenge — today’s decision will allow us to manage it together,” tweeted Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
The fact that the agreement was reached at all is revealing. The 27-member union has long struggled to find common ground on the issue. After the pandemic years when migration fell off political agendas — especially amid travel bans and closed borders — the issue roared back to campaign stages and elections.
Over the past year, an uptick in arrivals and the politicization of asylum and refugee policy have elevated it in many capitals, adding momentum to E.U. efforts. Anti-migrant voter sentiment propelled the far right to fresh victories in bastions of social liberalism like the Netherlands, while dominating the political debate in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and beyond.
During the first 11 months of 2023, the continent saw a 17 percent jump in irregular arrivals compared with the same period a year earlier. The more than 355,000 arrivals amounted to the highest numbers since 2016, when the region saw a historic influx led by refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war.
Beatriz Rios in Granada, Spain, contributed to this report.
