THE 2024 NEW EUROPEAN PACT ON MIGRATION AND ASYLUM: RECASTING THE EUROPEAN LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ASYLUM BETWEEN PROTECTION GUARANTEES AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MIGRATION MANAGEMENT

The New European Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted on 14 May 2024, constitutes one of the most far-reaching reforms undertaken by the European Union in this field. Through a package of ten legislative instruments, it reorganizes screening at the external borders, procedures for international protection, the determination of the Member State responsible, solidarity mechanisms, crisis and force majeure situations, and the role of databases and European Union agencies. This reform emerged in a context in which the migration crises of 2015 and 2016 exposed the limits of the Dublin system, whose application, particularly the irregular-entry criterion—concentrated responsibility in practice on first-entry Member States and revealed the difficulty of transforming solidarity among Member States into an effective obligation. This study argues that the Pact is not merely a technical amendment, but a reordering of the legal governance of migration and asylum in Europe, aimed at reconciling international protection, border management, administrative effectiveness, responsibility sharing, and respect for fundamental rights. However, this balance remains dependent on the practical implementation of legal safeguards, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, the right to an effective remedy, and the individual examination of applications. The article concludes that the Pact does not establish a fully integrated European asylum system but rather opens a new phase whose effectiveness will depend on its ability to transform migration management into a genuine common policy of protection.