The European Commission’s likely anti-asylum proposal to tackle sudden large arrivals may come before the end of the year, after warm endorsements by some 16 EU states during a breakfast on Friday (16 October) ahead of the second-day of the EU summit in Brussels.
Beyond the warm words, the discussions exposed a clear ambition among the 16 to give member states the power to close EU borders and temporarily and selectively suspend asylum applications, according to an EU diplomat.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the diplomat said there had been a lot of support for the so-called European emergency response framework, proposed by EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen during her State of the Union address last month.
Speculation on what exactly such a framework entails remains unclear, amid alarm among human rights defenders that the EU is seeking legal tools to curb asylum rights – echoing Polish temporary emergency measures that have suspended asylum registration along the Belarus border since March 2025.
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