|Published on: 9th October 2026|Categories: News|
On 16 September, European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen delivered the annual State of the Union (SOTEU) speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. In a section in which she addressed the ongoing situation in Ceuta, von der Leyen announced the preparation of a “new European Emergency Response Framework” which would only be triggered “under a strictly defined set of criteria” to allow for “time-limited and strictly defined flexibility in standard procedures”.
Two weeks later (29 September), the EC published a ‘5-point plan to prevent, anticipate and respond to sudden, mass illegal arrivals’ to build on the five-year European Asylum and Migration Management Strategy that was published in January. The five-point plan sets out the following priorities:
- Increasing co-operation with partner countries to prevent illegal migration
- Strengthening Europe’s external borders
- Improving monitoring, situational awareness and early warning systems
- Dismantling migrant smuggling and trafficking networks
- Reinforcing an effective return and readmission framework
It also sets out a number of actions to be taken by the EC, relevant EU agencies, EU member states (MS), the Council of the EU and the European Parliament under each priority. As part of ‘Strengthening Europe’s external borders’, the EC is assigned to ‘Work on a new European Emergency Response Framework to protect EU borders at all times, especially in scenarios when mass movements are engineered and weaponised’.
The five-point plan was discussed in the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 1 October in Luxembourg. However, no related conclusions were adopted.
It is expected that the proposed European Emergency Response Framework will be discussed as part of the ‘Migration’ agenda item in the European Council meeting on 15-16 October in Brussels.
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