There we go: @vonderleyen says that her much awaited 'New Migration Pact' will balance responsability and solidarity and that it will be pragmatic. Translation = there is something for everybody, so no one will like it.

On Moria: there will be in-kind assistance to Greece (a EU task force) to help with stranded asylum seekers. Remember that one of the main problems the refugee crisis brought was the blame game between Greece, and to a lesser extent, Italy, on one hand; and the EU on the other.

Many EU governments complained that Greece was not doing its share despite massive amounts of EU money and technical on-the-ground assistance. Trust in 2016-2018 was at an all time low: cue, the mandatory quota system, ECJ cases and Hellenic-Italian fury.

I am hungry, people. So is the quarantined kiddo. Why not doing these pressers in the morning, or after lunch, she wonders. Oh, why.

@MargSchinas says that the time for action is now. Of course, the time for action has been now for the past five years, but it is only now member-states seem to be more agreeable to a deal.

Which obviously does not mean they will agree. But the Commission has been careful this time in presenting something that it *thinks* MS may actually like. @MargSchinas himself is saying it: we have learned from our 2016 mistakes (mandatory quotas + ECJ)

The pact rests on three pillars.

First: external action. This means co-ordination with countries of origin and transit to stem flows.

Translation: carrots and sticks for African countries

Second: screening. Everybody will be finger-printed. And those with no right to stay, will be returned immediatedly.

Comment: as I have said many times before, return is the trickier part of any migration policy. It is never easy, or fast.

Third: internal rules and solidarity. This is about redistribution and Schengen. Here is where the "we are throwing Dublin to the garbagge" bit comes.

New concept: returns sponsorship.

Sponsoring member-states will help overcrowded MS to return migrants? Have I heard this correctly?

The three workstreams @MargSchinas is referring to are the three levels of emergency which were part of the Bulgarian compromise on 2018. This compromise, btw, was rejected by Italy at Council level.

Dublin is outdated @MargSchinas says. Which may be true. But the country of first arrival is not a rule the EU invented. It comes from international refugee law. So I assume the EU thinks that intl' refugee law needs a revamp, which is something I have been thinking for a bit.

Finally, @MargSchinas refers to Schengen and legal migration, but only tangentially. Yet, I do not understand any 'New Migration Pact' without a strong chapter on legal migration. Not because it will stop irregular migration. But because migration is indeed, inevitable.

@YlvaJohansson is ellaborating on this idea. Shameless self-plug: @BethOppenheim and myself wrote a long read on this in December 2018 - @CER_EU https://www.cer.eu/publications/archive/policy-brief/2018/why-europe-needs-legal-migration-and-how-sell-it

The argument of this brief still applies. One thing we said is that co-operation with third countries should be based on the idea that when economies improve, migration rises, not the other way around. This seems to have permeated with the EU now seeking 'partnerships'