Author
The French government produced the National Implementation Plan in December 2024.[1] However, since then, no new legislation related to the Pact has been adopted as of early April 2026, while the Pact will start applying on 12 June 2026.
On 8 April 2026, the Ministry of Interior presented to the French Council of Ministers a draft enabling law that, if adopted by the Parliament, would allow the government to take a series of decrees to adapt the national legal framework to the new provisions on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, thus avoiding going through the normal legislative process and opening the door to legislative debate on the content on the adaptations in French law for the Pact in Parliament. The government justified this approach by the ‘highly technical nature of the provisions’ of the Pact. The enabling law would allow the government to take three decrees: one to transpose the 2024 recast Reception Conditions Directive and take the ‘measures made necessary’ by the entry into force of the various regulations of the Pact (within 3 months of the enabling law), a second to extend and adapt these measures to overseas territories (within 6 ùonths of the enabling law), and a third to take ‘coordination or consistency measures and measures to correct potential errors’ (within 9 months of the enabling law).[2] As of 9 April 2026, the draft enabling law is set to be presented before the Senate on 20 May 2026.[3]
As of early April 2026, there is no publicly available information on the content of these decrees and little information more generally on France’s prospective implementation of the Pact beyond what is described in the national implementation plan, which however contains limited information. NGOs have presented detailed views on implementation, including opportunities and points of concern.[4]
[1] Ministry of Interior, General Directorate for Foreigners in France, Plan national de mise en œuvre and Annexe budgétaire, 16 December 2024, available in French here.
[2] French presidency, Compte rendu du Conseil des ministres du 8 avril 2026, 8 April 2026, available in French here.
[3] Senate, ‘L’ordre du jour’, available in French here.
[4] See for example Forum Réfugiés, France Terre D’Asile, Pacte européen sur la migration et l’asile : Mise en œuvre nationale – Les recommandations de Forum réfugiés et France terre d’asile, May 2025, available here.