December 14, 2018

EU leaders, at their last summit of 2018, failed to reach agreement on a comprehensive overhaul of migration and asylum policy.

The failure to reach a deal was a particular defeat for the Commission, which had made a last-ditch attempt to try to push through a deal. The European Council's refusal to act even on legislative initiatives that were close to completion drew a sharp rebuke from Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who accused some national capitals of "hypocrisy" by critcizing Brussels but then refusing to implement policy changes.

"On migration I am less happy because the Commission has proposed seven initiatives, five of them are close to agreement but it was not possible to convince colleagues today to adopt these five proposals because there are the two missing elements," Juncker said at the summit's closing news conference, referring to the proposed reform of the Common European Asylum System, which is stuck over the issue of the mandatory relocation of asylum seekers.

Read more:

https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-migration-eu-leaders-fail-again-to-agree-policy/