The New Pact on Migration and Asylum as a Response to Current Migration Challenges – Selected Issues

Abstract

The Covid -19 pandemic has significantly affected the movement of people within the European Union, both in terms of nationals of the Member States and others. On many occasions, as an instrument to combat or contain the spread of the virus, EU Member States have made use of the possibility of temporarily reintroducing border controls in the Schengen area, or even temporarily closing their national borders. Despite the Covid -19 pandemic, the migratory pressure on the countries of the European Union has not ceased, although the scale of this phenomenon has decreased in many areas. A separate problem is also the influx of illegal migrants to the territory of European Union Member States and the effective implementation of instruments to combat this practice. The regulations in force in the European Union in the area of migration and asylum were developed under different conditions, i.e. standard migration flows, and despite many modifications (e.g. in the context of the competences and tasks of Frontex) they have not proved effective in emergency situations. Consequently, many attempts have been made to amend these regulations. In 2020, they were replaced by a new comprehensive Pact on Migration and Asylum. The aim of this paper is to present and analyze selected legal problems related to the influx of irregular migrants to the European Union in the light of current migration trends and to show, against this background, the main demands for changes contained in the submitted legislative proposals.