ENS Briefing Statelessness and the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum: analysis and recommendations for implementation May 2024 Introduction In September 2020, the European Commission presented a new Pact on Migration and Asylum setting out a ‘comprehensive approach, bringing together policy in the areas of migration, asylum, integration and border management’. After nearly four years of debate and negotiations, the Pact was finally adopted by the European Parliament on 10 April 2024, and by the Council on 14 May 2024. A total of 10 legislative acts were adopted, which ‘reform the entire European framework for asylum and migration management’. Member States will now have two years to put the new laws into practice. The European Commission is in the process of developing a common implementation plan to assist Member States in this process. Statelessness was invisible in the original Pact proposals. In response to this omission, ENS published detailed analysis and recommendations with suggested amendments to protect the rights of stateless refugees and migrants. We followed this up in June 2023, with updated analysis and recommendations to inform trilogue negotiations. We have engaged extensively with the European Parliament, Council, and Commission throughout the negotiations to address the Pact’s blind spot on statelessness. Whilst the Pact as adopted raises significant concerns1 about the EU’s approach to migration and asylum more broadly, it is welcome that several of our calls to address statelessness were heard and incorporated in the various instruments adopted. These now need to be fully implemented so that statelessness is properly identified, and stateless people’s rights are respected in EU asylum systems. This briefing analyses the new statelessness provisions and makes recommendations to support their implementation. Why is statelessness relevant? To be stateless, is to have no nationality. For the more than 10 million stateless people around the world, this can mean denial of many basic rights most people take for granted. In Europe, statelessness affects over half a million people – both recent migrants and those who have lived in the same place for generations. Some of the key concerns raised to date include that the new rules will significantly increase the number of people (including children) subject to detention; that many more people seeking safety will be subject to fast-track procedures with limited safeguards; that States will be permitted to deviate from minimum legal standards in crisis situations; that the widespread use of the ‘legal fiction of non-entry’ poses significant risks to upholding the rule of law and fundamental rights; and that the ‘safe third country’ concept increases externalisation of Europe’s borders and responsibilities. 1 1