E.U. migration deal

 

Migrants running from dunes across a beach in northern France as they try to board smugglers’ boats bound for Britain in June. Sameer Al-Doumy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A long-awaited E.U. migration deal

After years of negotiations, European countries struck a deal to overhaul their joint migration system, an agreement aimed at allaying mounting pressure from ascendant far-right political parties across the continent.

The plan, named the E.U. migration and asylum pact, aims to make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers and to limit the entry of migrants into the bloc. It also seeks to give governments a greater sense of control over their borders while bolstering the E.U.’s role in migration management — treating it as a European issue, not just a national one.

Quotable: “Migration is a European challenge that requires European solutions,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in written comments.