The EU Migration Pact: concepts, processes, and political realities

Definition and Purpose of the EU Migration Pact

The European Union’s Pact on Migration and Asylum is a comprehensive reform package made up of ten pieces of legislation, put forward by the European Commission in September 2020,[1] adopted by the European Parliament in April 2024,[2] and approved by the Council of the EU on May 14, 2024. The new rules entered into force on June 11, 2024, with actual application beginning on June 12, 2026.[3]

According to its stated purpose, the Pact is not about increasing the volume of migration, but about managing it in a more orderly, more uniform way — with stricter procedures, faster returns, and burden-sharing among member states. Precisely for this reason, Western European civil-rights organizations have criticized it harshly: they consider several of its elements to be far more restrictive than before. The Pact introduces a number of tightening measures that were previously unthinkable: a mandatory border procedure, more automatic returns, and the designation of certain countries as safe third countries. It is telling that the report that in the spring of 2026 the EU sat down at the negotiating table with the Taliban leadership to arrange returns to Afghanistan — a regime formally recognized by no member state, but without whose cooperation mass returns cannot be carried out — was officially left without comment.[4]

The Orbán government rejected the Pact on the grounds that, in its assessment, it is not about stopping illegal migration but about institutionalizing it.[5] A qualified majority was required in the Council for the Pact (a minimum of 55 percent of member states, representing at least 65 percent of the EU’s population). Hungary and Poland voted against all ten pieces of legislation,[6] but the overwhelming majority of the other member states adopted it. The Hungarian veto had no blocking effect.

The Pact’s Four Pillars

1. Securing the External Borders

Screening Regulation

Every person who does not meet entry conditions must be subject to a mandatory rapid screening procedure before they may submit an asylum application. The process must be completed within 7 days,[7] and includes identification, biometric data collection (into Eurodac), and health and security checks.

Eurodac Database (renewed system)

The EU’s fingerprint and facial-image database is being turned into a full-fledged migration register. The minimum age for data collection is being lowered from 14 to 6 years.[8] The system serves both return and responsibility-determination processes. Importantly, it closes the previous loophole whereby a person could apply for protection in several member states without this being traceable.

Border Procedure

A mandatory accelerated asylum procedure for persons whose likelihood of recognition is low or who pose a security risk. The procedure may last a maximum of 12 weeks — during this time the person concerned is not legally considered to have entered EU territory[9] — effectively incorporating the logic of the transit zone into an EU legal framework.

Crisis and Instrumentalization Regulation

In an emergency situation — a mass influx, or where a third country deliberately directs migrants toward the EU’s borders — the member state concerned may temporarily depart from the procedural safeguards.[10] The Council of the EU decides whether a crisis situation exists.

2. Fairness and Efficiency

Asylum Procedures Regulation (APR)

Harmonizes asylum procedures conducted in EU member states. Sets deadlines for examining applications and makes it mandatory to reach a decision within the border procedure.

Qualification Regulation

Defines who may qualify as a refugee (persecuted on grounds of religion, race, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group), and who may receive subsidiary protection (risk of serious harm, civil-war situations). EU member states previously applied differing national standards in this area as well.

Reception Conditions Directive (revised)

Harmonizes the material reception conditions for asylum seekers in the EU — accommodation, provisions, health and legal access. The directive allows for restrictions on freedom of movement and place of residence, but narrows the scope for withdrawing conditions entirely.

3. Solidarity and Responsibility-Sharing — the Most Contested Element

Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (AMMR) — Reform of the Dublin System

The regulation replaces the Dublin III Regulation, which determines which member state is responsible for examining an asylum application.[11] The basic principle remains: the country of first entry is responsible. The new element: a mandatory solidarity mechanism to relieve the burden on member states at the external border (Greece, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Spain).

The Mandatory Solidarity Mechanism

Member states are required to contribute to solidarity every year — but not necessarily by taking in migrants:

• Relocation: taking in asylum seekers or persons granted protection.
• Financial contributions: if a country does not take on relocation, it may pay. The amount is €20,000 per person (approx. HUF 8 million), directed into EU migration programs.
• Capacity-building support: providing border-protection infrastructure, personnel, and equipment to burdened member states.

If a member state fulfills its mandatory solidarity contribution by offering capacity-building assistance — for example, contributing to Greek or Maltese border-protection capacity — that is also an acceptable alternative. Representatives of the Tisza government referred to this option in June 2026. However, the Commission’s acceptance of this decision is not automatic.

4. Resettlement Framework

EU member states may make voluntary resettlement commitments to admit persons in need of protection who are staying in third countries, with UNHCR coordination. This aims to strengthen legal migration channels.

The Pact and Hungary: The Legal Reality

1. Mandatory to Implement — But Negotiated Solutions May Be Possible

The Pact is a legislative package adopted through the EU’s ordinary legislative procedure, by qualified majority. It is binding on all member states, including Hungary — refusal to implement it triggers infringement proceedings.[12]

2. Conflict Between the Pact and Hungary’s Current Asylum System

Hungary’s current de facto asylum system — in which submitting an application at the embassies in Belgrade and Kyiv remains the only option, except for Ukrainian citizens — constitutes, according to the European Court of Justice, a breach of EU law.[13] Implementation of the Pact necessarily goes hand in hand with this — the system must allow for asylum applications to be lodged at the border, with an accelerated procedure and the possibility of automatic return.

3. The Question of Reception Camps: Vitnyéd and the Transit-Zone Logic

Following partial implementation of the Pact, the basis for the existing €1 million daily fine will cease to exist once the asylum procedure rules meet EU standards. This is why the Orbán government negotiated a proposal examining the adoption of the Pact’s rules — including the introduction of the 12-week border procedure.[14] To implement the Pact, Hungary must build registration and reception capacities. Persons arriving and undergoing the screening procedure do not legally enter EU territory — this is based on the same principles as the logic of the transit zone — but within an EU legal framework that has also been accepted by the European Court of Justice.[15] Thus, this infrastructure — a reception-registration camp that does not legally permit entry — is exactly what implementation of the Pact also requires of the Tisza government.

4. The Tisza Government’s Reactions

Hungary did not submit its National Implementation Plan, which every other member state completed by June 2025. Interior Minister Gábor Pósfai confirmed on June 15, 2026, that Hungary, in its current form, rejects the Pact, since it has not submitted an implementation plan.[16]

Péter Magyar emphasized in parliament that the Pact actually brought tightening in a number of areas, and that EU policy has moved much closer to Hungary’s previous position.[17] He highlighted the option that, if Hungary faced mass migration pressure, the country could offer not to take in migrants and not to pay, but instead to provide capacity-building assistance to other member states.

5. Political Maneuvering: the September Roadmap and the Vitnyéd Strategy

The Tisza government must prepare the political groundwork by September, until which point the special legal order under which the current Hungarian asylum framework survives remains in effect. From September onward, this framework automatically expires, and the government will have to make substantive decisions on aligning with the Pact — including building the reception-registration infrastructure needed for the border procedure.

Summary

If the public accepts that the Orbán government, too, would have built such camps — and that this was not automatically the same as letting migrants in — then the Tisza government will be able to use the same argumentative framework for its own necessary measures.

Key Concepts

Dublin System / Dublin Regulation (Dublin III)

The set of rules determining which EU member state is responsible for examining an asylum application. Main rule: the country of first entry. The AMMR is its reformed version, which also contains a mandatory solidarity element.[18]

Refugee

Under the 1951 Geneva Convention, a person who has a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group. In the EU, granted on the basis of the Qualification Regulation.[19]

Subsidiary Protection

Granted to persons who do not qualify as refugees but would face the risk of the death penalty, torture, or armed conflict in their home country.

Asylum Seeker

A person who has requested international protection in an EU member state, but whose application has not yet received a final decision. Legally not the same as a refugee.

Irregular / Illegal Migrant

A person staying in EU territory without a valid residence permit, or who entered illegally. Important to distinguish from asylum seekers, who may lawfully request protection.

Relocation

The transfer of an asylum seeker or a person granted protection from one member state to another. One form of the solidarity mechanism — from Hungary’s perspective, the least acceptable, but the Pact allows for an alternative.

Return

The procedure for returning persons staying unlawfully to their home country or to a safe third country. The Pact aims to increase its effectiveness.

Safe Third Country

A country through which the migrant transited and where they could have received protection. If this applies, the asylum application can be rejected in an accelerated procedure.

Eurodac

The EU’s fingerprint and facial-image database. After the Pact: a full-fledged migration database, which also serves return and responsibility-determination processes.

Screening

Mandatory identification and verification procedure near the border, for persons not meeting entry conditions. Time limit: 7 days.

Border Procedure

Accelerated asylum procedure near the border, with a 12-week time limit. During the procedure, the person concerned is not legally considered to have entered EU territory.

Transit Zone

A legally special zone between the border and the territory of an EU member state, where the migrant is physically present but has not legally entered. Hungary’s transit zones were declared unlawful by the European Court of Justice in 2020.[20] The Pact’s border procedure is based on similar logic, but within an EU legal framework.

Instrumentalization

When a third country deliberately directs a large number of migrants toward the EU’s borders in order to exert political pressure (see the 2021 Polish-Belarusian border crisis).[21] The Pact’s crisis regulation provides a legal framework for this.

National Implementation Plan (NIP)

The member-state implementation plan that every member state had to submit to the Commission by June 2025. Hungary is the only member state that has not done so, and, according to the Tisza government’s position, will not do so.