On Monday, December 8th, the European Union took a decisive step in the reconfiguration of its migration policy by approving a package of measures that tightens border control, speeds up returns, and allows the externalization of asylum application processing. The agreement, backed by the interior ministers of the 27 member states, confirms the political shift the bloc has been experiencing in recent years and which responds, to a large extent, to the rise of patriotic and conservative parties and the progressive decline of traditional forces. The new provisions, which include the creation of processing and return centers outside European territory and the expansion of the list of ‘safe countries,’ represent one of the biggest reworkings of the asylum system since the so-called migration crisis of 2015.
The background is electoral and geopolitical. From France to the Netherlands, and from Germany to Italy and the countries of Eastern Europe, the sovereignist Right continues to gain ground, influencing governments and placing migration at the center of the public debate. Traditional parties—Christian democrats, social democrats, and liberals face a level of erosion that has forced them to reposition their discourse. Europe thus enters a different phase, in which the defense of border control once again takes center stage in the European project. The rise of conservative and patriotic options is a structural factor influencing policy design. The question is no longer whether the EU will continue hardening its migration policy, but to what extent it will do so and how this shift will reshape the continent’s political architecture. What is clear is that the old consensus has collapsed, and Brussels is adapting, for the first time in years, to a reality already dictated by ballot boxes and the streets.
