The EU’s new migration pact and its return laws have barely come into force, but Europe’s dominant political family wants already to take things a step further.

The European People’s Party (EPP) adopted a resolution on Tuesday, calling for much tougher measures to crack down on irregular migration.

“My opinion is that many staff of DG HOME seem content with the implementation of the migration pact, and this is not enough,” said Detlef Seif, an MP from the centre-right CDU party of Friedrich Merz.

Seif was in Vienna for the EPP political assembly, where his CDU secured a passage in the resolution calling for the Commission to look into “further legislative measures to prevent illegal migration into the EU.”

This includes an “explicit right” for countries to reject asylum claims where migrants are being “instrumentalised” at the external borders.

That would move EU law closer to the approach already taken by Poland, where Donald Tusk, the prime minister, has accused Russia of deliberately pushing migrants across the border with Belarus.

Return hubs

The EPP also reiterated its support for controversial return hubs, permitted under the EU’s new ‘returns’ regulation.

The political context is important. Germany is heading into key regional elections in which the CDU will be under pressure from the far-right AfD, which takes a much tougher line on migration, calling for ‘remigration‘, essentially mass, state-sponsored deportations.

But Seif rejected the suggestion that the centre right was being pulled along by the far right.

“It’s not the influence of far-right parties like the AfD in Germany; it’s the need we have to change this migration policy because we need it concerning security.”

“The dignity of human beings is very important. And that’s the great difference with the far-right parties,” he said.

The EPP’s political assembly does not make EU law, but it serves as an important incubator for future EU policy, bringing together ministers, commissioners, and deputies from the political family that dominates the EU institutions.

Rarely in the bloc has there been a constellation of governments more receptive to tougher migration measures, and a European Parliament where centre-right and right-wing parties increasingly command the numbers to push through more restrictive proposals.

EU leaders are gearing up for a broader strategic debate on migration at the October summit. At the same time, coalitions of EU governments are advancing plans for return hubs beyond the bloc’s borders, with some expected to unveil concrete arrangements before the end of 2026.

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