Original text
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Commissioner Brunner at the press point on a five-point plan to strengthen resilience and security of EU external borders Brussels, 29 September 2026 Good morning. Later this week will discuss at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, where we stand and what we still need to do on migration. Let me give you a short update: 1. Our reforms ar...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Remarks by Commissioner Brunner at the press point on a five-point plan to strengthen resilience and security of EU external borders Brussels, 29 September 2026 Good morning. Later this week will discuss at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, where we stand and what we still need to do on migration. Let me give you a short update: 1. Our reforms are working Our European Migration Reform is paying off. Across Europe's external borders, we see a significant decrease of illegal border crossings. In total, -55% in the last two years and an additional third this year. This leads to record lows in asylum applications – especially in the countries that used to be main destinations. Sweden : lowest ever recorded. Austria now returns more people than it receives asylum claims from — the first time that has happened in over two decades. And in Munich, I was told German asylum applications are down 80 percent compared to the same time two years ago. That is not a small improvement. That is a real shift. We are also improving on returns . And our new rules will reinforce this. 2. The Pact The Pact is our foundation. And it is part of the solution, and in a couple of weeks will we report on its progress. But a foundation is something you build on — not something you stop at. That is exactly what our five-year migration strategy from January has already signaled. Good policy never stops evolving. Three important topics: a new and stronger Frontex mandate, an active migration diplomacy and a new European Emergency Response Framework will allow our Member States to deal with scenarios when mass movements are engineered and weaponised against us. We are bringing our European house in order . 3. External borders & Ceuta A significant part of our efforts depends on protecting our external EU borders. And the Entry Exit System shows, how we are stepping up this work: over 210 million entries & exits of non-EU citizens registered, 70.000 stopped at the border due to wrong or false documents and almost 2.000 people presenting a security threat, connected to terrorism or drugs trafficking. It is a significant boost for our security : with it, we know who enters our Union, when and where and who has to leave it. And still: the events from this summer showed that images sometimes overshadow the best statistics . They showed how people are exploited with false hopes. And we saw how migration is used by actors that may want to harm Europe. We supported Spain and Ceuta from the very first day. And our support is very concrete: €115 million in emergency assistance for stronger border protection, faster returns, and humanitarian help where it is needed. Frontex, Europol, the European Asylum Agency, all stepped up their support. What happened this summer was a stress test for the European Union. We passed this test, but we cannot and will not return to business as usual . This experience tells us exactly where to put our energy next: more resilience, more speed, and getting ahead and prepared before events turn into emergencies. 3. Next steps First, we need to ensure that all Member States are implementing the Pact. And then, we must learn the lessons from this summer. They tell us that we need to get better at preventing, anticipating and responding to sudden, large- scale illegal arrivals. It builds on five steps announced by President von der Leyen in the immediate aftermath of the Ceuta crisis. One: work with our partner countries, before people reach our borders. Using an active migration diplomacy, which has been my focus since the start of this mandate. At the UN General Assembly, we launched the Eastern Corridor initiative – working with all our partners along the busiest and most dangerous route towards the EU. It spans from South Asia to Libya . We must ensure that by working together and complementing each other, we can sustain the low number of arrivals and further reduce illegal migration, while maintaining labor mobility pathways open. Two: protect our external borders We will reinforce Frontex, so they agency is quicker and more agile. We will propose for Frontex to have more resources , to better support the Member States, a bigger role in returns , especially in working with third countries and more flexibility to react to extraordinary situations like hybrid threats. And on a new European Emergency Response Framework. Because Europe needs the means to protect its borders at all times , especially in scenarios when mass movements are engineered and weaponised against us. We will always comply with our values and fundamental rights. But we will never compromise on protecting our borders . We already previewed the need to address these challenges in our migration strategy from January that the Union must continue to be fully prepared to tackle emerging challenges or threats on our external borders. And now, we are working on this initiative and we will discuss it at the JHA. Protecting our external border is a fundamental task for any State and the Union as a whole. Three: We will improve our early warning systems. To avert future crises and improve monitoring and situational awareness, we will improve social media monitoring for Frontex and use the Global Alliance Rapid Response Initiative (GARRI). Four: we must continue going after the smugglers and their money. The work of the Global Alliance against Migrant Smuggling continues. This needs to be supported by concrete measures, some of which we proposed years ago. The Facilitation Directive - Parliament needs to agree now its negotiating position on the 2023 Commission proposal , so we can finish the talks. The sanctions regime - currently under discussion in the Council. The Europol mandate . Five: reinforce returns We will support Member States to make sure that our new return rules deliver fully and use our tools (visa, trade, funding) to ensure that partner countries on readmission. Closing The message is clear: Europe has more control over illegal migration than in a decade . Illegal arrivals have dropped and are continuing to drop massively. Our work to further reduce illegal migration will continue. It is us who decide who can enter Europe, who can stay and who has to leave again. Not smugglers and human traffickers. Thank you. SPEECH/26/2014 <@rel_link@>
Speech Brief