'Historic day': EU strikes major deal to reform migration policy after three years of bitter debates

The sought-after agreement, which is preliminary and still needs to undergo formal ratification, was sealed after marathon talks that began on Monday afternoon, continued throughout Tuesday and concluded on Wednesday morning, an intensity that reflects the high stakes on the table.

Negotiations focused on a vast and complex array of open questions that required compromises on both sides, such as detention periods, racial profiling, unaccompanied minors, search-and-rescue operations and border surveillance.

The Council, led by the Spanish presidency, defended a rigid position to give member states the widest margin of manoeuvre to handle migration, including by extending a proposed fast-tracked asylum procedure to as many claimants as possible, while the Parliament insisted on stricter provisions to respect fundamental rights. The European Commission also took part, providing assistance and guidance.

With the winter break looming ever closer, the co-legislators were under increasing pressure to patch up their differences, which in some cases were profound, and achieve the eagerly anticipated breakthrough. Thanks to Wednesday's leap, the bloc will be able to push forward five interlinked pieces of legislation that redefine the rules to collectively receive, manage and relocate the irregular arrival of migrants.

The laws, known as the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, were first unveiled in September 2020 in an attempt to turn the page on decades of ad-hoc crisis management, which saw governments take unilateral and uncoordinated measures to cope with a steep rise in asylum seekers.

These go-it-alone policies severely undermined the EU's collective decision-making and left Brussels looking like an inconsequential bystander in