An urgent pact to regulate immigration in Europe

The collapse of the island of Lampedusa due to migratory pressure is dramatic proof of the need for a new asylum pact that offers a joint solution to the enormous challenge facing Europe. The Spanish Presidency, with the summit in Granada taking place this week as a key appointment, must assume its central role in a reform that is urgent for several reasons. Firstly, due to the unstoppable increase in arrivals following the slowdown imposed by the pandemic and outbreaks of instability

in regions such as

. Added to this is the gap between the Member States of the South (

,

), which are facing a crisis on the front line that is beyond their capacities, and those in the North (

,

or

), which receive migrants in secondary movements. In addition, the European elections in June are approaching, where the Europhobic far-right forces, which have made immigration one of their main workhorses, can capitalize on the discontent.

The negotiations have accelerated driven by the Italian

, who came to power a year ago with populist promises for which there are no easy, let alone unilateral, solutions. The lock that he proclaimed in the campaign has been impossible to fulfill: as we tell today in our pages, so far this year more than 133,000 people have landed in Italy, almost double that in 2022 (70,796) and triple that in 2021 (45,761). Meloni's party, the Brothers of Italy, is also in a competition to show toughness within its own coalition, where the League of

It exploits the issue opportunistically.

The new EU regulation on the table restricts asylum conditions by extending the time limit for processing applications and the time spent on the detention of migrants. The most difficult piece of the puzzle to fit together is the mechanism of crisis management, situations of force majeure and "instrumentalization", such as that instigated by Putin's Russia in 2015 – when a million Syrians fleeing the war collapsed European reception systems – or by the Belarus of

in 2021.

Europe is a community of values that must live up to a moral issue such as the right to asylum, in the face of illiberal populisms that offer simplistic recipes to tackle a reality that also has effects on social coexistence in the receiving countries. Europe is at the same time an ageing territory that needs immigrants to sustain the welfare state. To be able to

regulation is needed to prevent uncontrolled arrivals and to share the burden among States. The Spanish Presidency cannot ignore the key role it must assume.

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