On 18 June 2025, the European Union Agency for Asylum hosted its first State of Asylum Conference at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta under the theme EU Asylum at a Crossroads. The day mixed two keynotes, three panels and a presentation of the new EUAA Asylum Report 2025. Ministers, EU officials, UN and IOM leadership and parts of civil society met to discuss how the migration and asylum pact moves from paper to practice. AsyLex joined to bring a rights-based, front-line view from legal aid work with people seeking protection.
Our overall impression: implementation milestones dominated; independent NGO perspectives and lived-experience voices were present, but peripheral to the agenda.
Keynote highlights
Opening remarks by EUAA Executive Director Nina Gregori and a keynote by Malta’s President Myriam Spiteri Debono set the tone. A video message linked the debate to the pact’s implementation timeline and the transition period now underway. Missing in the opening framing: concrete guarantees on access to counsel at borders, monitoring of fundamental rights in “hotspots,” and remedies when standards fail.
Panel 1 – EU at crossroads, where do we go from here:
Moderator Ali Aslan chaired a political conversation between Greece’s Minister of Migration and Asylum Makis Voridis, Finland’s Interior Minister Mari Rantanen, Albania’s Deputy Interior Minister Andi Mahila and ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger. The through-line was “returns first, cooperation with third countries, faster procedures.”
Our note: the panel normalised ideas like third-country processing and return “hubs” without matching discussion of non-refoulement risks, detention-like conditions at borders, independent monitoring, or complaint mechanisms. References to “implementation” rarely engaged with individual risk assessments or post-return harm and the legal situ. Before scaling any return architecture, the EU must prove that safeguards actually work in practice, not only on paper.
Panel 2: – EU working together. Stepping up migration management in a tense environment
Professor Lilian Tsourdi moderated a practice-focused panel with EUAA’s Nina Gregori, IOM’s Lukas Gehrke, UNHCR’s Philippe Leclerc, Kim Freidberg from the Council and Beate Gminder, now Director-General at DG HOME. Speakers converged on three points: sustained political commitment, fine-tuning during transition (e.g., safe-country concepts) and protection-sensitive implementation.
Our note: solid on systems and timelines, thin on the front-line determinants of fairness. We heard little on guaranteed, early access to qualified legal aid; quality interpreting; trauma-informed and child-sensitive interviewing; and minimum reception standards in border settings. These are precisely the levers that decide whether accelerated and border procedures remain lawful and dignified once scaled.
Panel 3 – The EUAA’s role in the new CEAS
Hugo Brady led a reflective discussion with EUAA/EASO veterans Evelina Gudzinskaitė, Mikael Ribbenvik Cassar, David Costello, Robert Visser and Wolfgang Taucher. The message: the Agency is moving from back-office support to a central pillar of “practical solidarity.”
AsyLex note: operational support can be positive—if it embeds rights safeguards by design. Capacity building that ignores quality control, independent oversight and meaningful NGO participation risks institutionalising shortcuts.
What the numbers say: The EUAA Asylum Report 2025 shows applications fell by roughly 11 percent in 2024 compared to 2023, yet pressure remains high. Pending caseloads are heavy: by spring 2025 about 1.3 million asylum cases were pending across the EU+, roughly three quarters at first instance—mirroring the “one million pending” figure cited in the room. Temporary protection for people fleeing Ukraine remains a defining track alongside asylum: around 4.3 million people were under temporary protection in mid-2025, with the regime extended to 4 March 2027.
AsyLex note: numbers are context, not policy goals. Success should be measured against protection outcomes and rights compliance—not only return rates or processing speed. There are many important issues: First, a faster procedure without enforceable safeguards leads to rights erosion at the edges.
Second, a Third-country cooperation will shape outcomes. Without independent monitoring, legal counselling and real accountability, externalisation shifts risk onto people seeking protection.
Third, Backlogs and protection both matter. Clearing ~1.3 million pending cases requires quality decisions, not just throughput.
Overall, The Agency’s role is expanding. With greater operational reach must come stronger, transparent oversight and structured NGO involvement.
AsyLex’ points urgently need more attention: From casework, we know where systems break down—at border points with thin legal aid, rushed interviews, inconsistent screening for vulnerabilities (including medical and psychological needs), and reception that does not meet legal standards. If border and accelerated procedures are scaled, these risks scale too.
Our Recommendations
- Make access to independent legal aid at the border a non-negotiable, with ring-fenced funding.
- Require trauma-informed, child-sensitive procedures and qualified interpreting, audited by independent monitors.
- Publish disaggregated indicators that prioritise protection outcomes (recognition rates by nationality and procedure type, quality-review results, appeal success) alongside processing and return metrics.
- Build formal NGO and lived-experience seats into design, monitoring and evaluation bodies from day one.
- Guarantee effective remedies and complaints mechanisms in all border sites, including for people in de facto detention settings.
Overall, it is important that NGOs such as AsyLex participate in these meetings of the European Union Agency for Asylum, as their influence grows with the implementation of the CEAS and their responsibility for ensuring that member states uphold human rights standards. NGOs like AsyLex play a central role in this and with your support, will continue to do so.