Tomorrow, 12 June 2026, the Pact on Migration and Asylum will start to apply in all EU Member States: this has been pointed out by the European Commission today in a notice. With this new regulation, “for the first time, the EU has a comprehensive migration and asylum framework in place, with strong external border protection, fair and firm asylum rules, and a balance between solidarity and responsibility”. The President of the EU Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, stated that the Pact provides an “effective, fair and firm solution” to the challenge of migration, while the EU Commission continues to strengthen relationships with global partners “to address the root causes of migration together”. The key points of the new rules include compulsory border checks, faster procedures for profiles that are not eligible for protection, and repatriation directly from the border; shorter timelines to review asylum applications, and stricter rules on abusive applications and movements between Member States; harmonisation of reception conditions in the Member States, and access to the labour market after 6 months; compulsory but flexible solidarity mechanism between Member States, and definite criteria for reviewing asylum applications; establishment of an independent monitoring system to ensure compliance with human rights during border procedures. According to the EU Commission, there is still a lot of work to be done to implement such reforms, but they are still an achievement, which will be celebrated in Nicosia tomorrow with an informal ministerial conference, hosted by the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU and attended by the Commissioner for Migration, Magnus Brunner.