July 2nd 2024
How will the EU's New Pact on Migration and Asylum impact the local level - first and foremost cities' and civil society's ability to welcome people who seek protection in the EU? And what can cities now do about it? This is what we explained and discussed in our latest Cities4Refugees webinar, available now here and below.
Local perspectives were not heard in the development of the New Pact. However, now that it is the member states' turn to translate the Pact into national policies and practices by December 12, we have another window of opportunity to raise our concerns loudly and to demand that cities and civil society have a say in drafting these national implementation plans. But to state the obvious: we have to be fast and we have to be loud, together, if we want to be heard in time. And we hope our event succeeded in making this clear and that it will prompt much-needed action- action that aims for solidarity with those who urgently need us.
A big thank you to Eurocities and Katharina Bambergwho hosted this webinar with us. And an equally big thank you to our speakers Maria Prsa (Munich & International Alliance of Safe Harbours), Niels Tubbing (Eurocities Working Group on Migration and Integration / EU Urban Partnership on the Inclusion of Migrants), Michele LeVoy (Platform for Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), Lefteris Papagiannakis (Greek Council for Refugees), Tiago da Cruz (From the Sea to the City) and MEP Birgit Sippel for analysing the New Pact in detail and sharing their knowledge and assessments - which we should all listen to very carefully - with us.
The panel was moderated by Lea Rau, Migration Policy Officer at Berlin Governance Platform.
