What is the new EU migration and asylum pact about?
The EU has adopted a new regulatory framework reforming the Member States' asylum and migration systems. In this section of the Swedish Migration Agency Answers, you can read about the new rules and how they will affect asylum seekers and migration management in the EU.
What is the Pact?
The EU's Pact on Migration and Asylum is a comprehensive cooperation on migration within the EU, governed by 10 legal acts. The new rules will govern, among other things, how the asylum process in the EU will work, how migrants will be checked at the border and what Member States will do if many people come to the EU at the same time to seek international protection.
The Pact will apply from 12 June 2026 and will provide a comprehensive and harmonized approach to migration management and the asylum process in the EU, with a particular focus on joint planning, strengthened division of responsibilities, efficient processes and safeguarding the right to asylum. The reforms can be divided into four areas:
Asylum border procedures – screenings and management of migrants at the EU's external border which should be the same in all Member States.
Asylum procedure – similar asylum procedures in all Member States will give applicants equal rights and a more efficient system.
Reception and detention – accommodation and reception should promote a process that is close to the border, fast processing times and efficient returns.
Division of responsibilities, solidarity and crisis management in the EU – a new system replaces the old Dublin rules (regarding seeking asylum in the first EU country) and clarifies which Member State is responsible for the examination and creates a fairer distribution of asylum seekers. It also introduces a new joint management of migration crises and cooperation with third countries.
Why has the Pact been adopted?
Discussions on closer cooperation between EU countries on migration have been ongoing for many years. The rapidly growing refugee crisis in 2015 exposed shortcomings in both cooperation and Member States' asylum and migration systems. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, followed by hundreds of thousands of people fleeing to Europe, reinforced the need for joint planning and crisis preparedness in the field of migration.
What happens when a person applies for protection in the EU?
Those seeking international protection in EU Member States will be affected by the Pact in several ways. This will be reflected, for example, at border controls, during the asylum process and in the reception/accommodation of protection seekers.
When applicants for protection arrive at the EU's external border, the same checks will be carried out in all EU countries through so-called screening. This is a necessary screening to ensure that EU countries know who is on their territory.
The person's identity must be established, his or her health and possible vulnerability must be examined and a security check must be carried out by means of entries in registers, etc. The results of the checks are fed into the common Eurodac database and will then become the basis of the asylum process. The information can also be used at other times, for example to achieve a fair distribution between EU countries.
After the screening, the procedure in which the applicant will be examined is decided. Initially, the applicant can be examined in one of two different procedures. The first is the regular procedure, called the asylum procedure, which is similar to the current procedure where the grounds for asylum are examined within six months.
The second procedure applies to persons who, as early as from the screening stage, are deemed unlikely to have their application accepted. It is called asylum border procedure and means that applicants are not considered as having entered the country, they have to stay in special border accommodation and be available for the examination. The process should be close to the border and fast; it should be completed in three months, including appeals.
For those who are rejected, there is a special return procedure, and within three months the person must have been deported from Sweden.
A new system for asylum accommodation
A key issue is the impact of the Pact on reception and accommodation. Even before the Member States agreed on the Migration Pact, plans for a reformed reception system in Sweden had been underway for several years and the Swedish Migration Agency had been tasked with creating an orderly reception system that promotes a more efficient asylum and return process.
The result of these parallel processes is that asylum seekers will mainly be accommodated in reception and return centers, mainly shared accommodation. The centers should primarily be located in places where there is an asylum procedure.
In a first targeting decision, six municipalities have been identified as suitable locations. These locations are also the Agency's focus for establishing the screening and border procedure.
The other shared accommodation facilities of the Swedish Migration Agency will also be used as reception and return centers to cover the need for places.
Accommodation facilities must be safe and secure for residents, especially children, LGBTI people, people with disabilities and people who are at risk of being subjected to violence. Access to schools, gender equality and opportunities for activities are other issues to be considered when designing accommodation facilities.
How will the Pact be implemented?
The Swedish Migration Agency is working intensively to ensure that the Pact can be implemented on 12 June, 2026. This work takes place at three different levels.
- Within the Agency with a special programme and project organisation.
- Nationally, together with other authorities, including the Swedish Police Authority and the country's municipalities and regions.
- Within the EU, together with other Member States, the EU's asylum agency EUAA, the European Commission, Frontex and others.
The Pact on Migration and Asylum aims to harmonise legislation, processes and management of migration in EU countries. Despite many years of cooperation in the field of migration, countries have different starting points in different respects, so implementation is also different. For Sweden, this mainly involves the introduction of screening and asylum border procedures, a more integrated asylum and reception process, and building a joint planning and management of migration to the EU together with other EU countries.
Published 2025-06-18
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