New EMN Ireland series on the EU Migration and Asylum Pact

This is the first in an ongoing series of news items on the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. For the next year, EU countries will be preparing to implement the Pact which will have different implications for different countries. It continues work that began in 1999 when the European Council committed to establishing a Common European Asylum System based on the Geneva Convention to ensure fair and equal treatment for asylum seekers across the EU.

This series will take both high-level and detailed looks at different aspects of the Pact, which we at EMN Ireland hope will be supportive of policymakers, NGOs, and interested members of the wider public.

The EU Migration and Asylum Pact

Across the EU, work related to implementing the EU Migration and Asylum Pact is underway. The Pact itself has been described in many different ways, but it can be helpful to think of it as approximately nine pieces of legislation focused on the efficiency and comparability of procedures, and the fair sharing of responsibility.

Many of the pieces of legislation are updates to previous versions developed as a part of ongoing work on the Common European Asylum System described above, although there are significant changes and many new pieces of legislation.

The Pact is often broken down into four thematic “pillars”. You can read a previous EMN Ireland news item which describes the framework according to the four pillars (securing external border, fast and efficient procedures, effective systems of solidarity and responsibility, and embedding migration in international partnerships).

What it means for Ireland

Unlike most other EU Member States, Ireland is not automatically bound by the Part of the EU Treaty that relates to migration legislation, but Ireland can opt into relevant pieces of legislation. Ireland is opting in to seven of the nine pieces of legislation. The two regulations that Ireland has not opted-in to (the Return Border Procedure regulation and the Screening regulation) are Schengen related. However, Ireland has indicated that we will also align our legislation with these regulations, as far as possible. A tenth regulation, the EUAA regulation, passed in 2021, is sometimes also included in the list of Pact-related legislation. Ireland also opted in to the EUAA Regulation in 2023.

Ireland plans to implement all of the required changes to the international protection system through a single piece of legislation, the General Scheme of which was published in April.

The National Implementation Plan

Ireland’s national implementation plan was approved for submission by the Government on the 29^th of March. You can read a brief on the plan published by the Government here.The plan includes significant changes to asylum law, policy and procedures. The government has communicated that it has the intention to replace the current International Protection Act 2015 with a new Act, the General Scheme of which was approved and published in April. It is planned that this will be enacted and operational by June 2026 when the Pact comes into effect.

Source: Oireachtas Library and Research Service

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