As EU leaders gathered in Brussels for the 18-19 June European Council, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen circulated an opening-day letter highlighting “historic progress” on migration policy and calling on capitals to move “from legislation to operation”. The missive – dated 18 June and seen by Brussels newsletter Agence Europe – singles out the freshly adopted Returns Regulation and the earlier entry-into-force of the Migration and Asylum Pact on 12 June. It urges member states to submit national implementation road-maps by October. French President Emmanuel Macron arrived armed with a proposal to convert Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle’s Terminal 3 into a dedicated ‘front-office’ facility for accelerated asylum screening of airport arrivals who cannot be immediately returned. Élysée advisers say the plan would cost €180 million and require Frontex and EU budget support, a test case for the Pact’s new solidarity-fund mechanism. Macron will also lobby for a share of the €1.6 billion external-border technology fund to cover biometric upgrades on the Franco-Swiss frontier after the security lockdown for the Evian G7 earlier in the week. Interior-minister Gérald Darmanin, travelling with the delegation, told reporters that France intends to be “first in line” to operationalise the Pact’s border-procedure regulation, which caps the processing of manifestly unfounded claims at 12 weeks. NGOs warned that Paris must increase OFPRA staffing and legal-aid budgets to avoid a procedural bottleneck that could leave applicants in extended limbo zones. For mobility stakeholders the summit signals that EU-level migration law – often dismissed as distant – will now materialise in concrete infrastructure and funding decisions with direct consequences for corporate relocation timelines. Employers planning to fly in third-country national contractors via Paris could soon face new on-arrival screening steps, while French firms posting staff abroad may benefit from reciprocal improvements at other EU hubs as funding cascades across the bloc.
Source: Agence Europe
