The European Commission's New Pact on Migration and Asylum: Horizontal Substitute Impact Assessment

This 'Horizontal Substitute Impact Assessment of the European Commission's new pact on migration and asylum' was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). The impact assessment (IA) focuses on the main proposed changes implied by the European Commission's new pact, with a particular focus on the following four proposed regulations: 1) asylum and migration management regulation (RAMM); 2) crisis and force majeure regulation; 3) amended Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR); and 4) screening regulation. The horizontal substitute IA critically assesses the 'system' and underlying logic of the proposed new pact with the aim of analysing how the four Commission proposals would work and interact in practice. The IA also assesses whether and to what extent the proposed new pact addresses the identified shortcomings and implementational problems of current EU asylum and migration law and policy. Moreover, the IA identifies and assesses the expected impacts on fundamental rights, as well as economic, social and territorial impacts of the proposed new pact. The IA concludes that all of the assessed dimensions will be influenced by the proposed new pact. Although interviewed stakeholders indicate that, in certain cases, the new pact stands to have positive impacts on various aspects of migration and asylum in the EU, the overall consensus is that the new pact, as it is currently presented by the Commission, will have significantly negative consequences for Member States, local communities and migrants. Such potential negative effects have been found in all four dimensions covered by the IA: territorial, economic, social and fundamental rights.