Author
New legislation
On 23 December 2025, the Council of Ministers approved three draft bills relating to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum: one amending the Aliens Act, one revising the appeal procedures before the CALL, and one amending the Reception Act. [1] After advice from the Council of State, the first two drafts were submitted to Parliament in March 2026. [2] They had not yet been approved at the time of writing (June 2026). A third draft law transposing the recast Reception Directive, which will amend the Reception Act of 2007, still needs to be submitted to Parliament. However, articles 9 and 10 of the recast Reception Directive have been transposed in the draft law amending the Aliens Act.
Some proposed changes regarding procedures at first instance before the CGRS include, among others, the audio recording of every interview, the application of the accelerated procedure in several instances (e.g., if the applicant comes from a third country for which the protection rate at EU level the preceding year was 20% or less), the amplification of the situations that are to be considered as “subsequent applications”, the use of implicit withdrawal decisions, the expansion of the concepts of safe country of origin and safe third country, or giving the CGRS the competence of age assessments.[3] The Immigration Office will be competent for the screening procedure on the territory for third country nationals who introduce an application for international protection. They will also organise legal counselling in the registration centre between the registration and lodging stages of an application.
The draft law related to the procedure before the CALL introduces, among other things, changes to appeal deadlines, shortening them from 30 to 10 days for appeals against certain decisions (e.g. transfer decisions in the Dublin procedure), as well as limitations on procedural timelines in accelerated procedures, on the maximum number of pages of the appeal note, and on the situations in which an appeal has automatic suspensive effect.[4]
Relocations
In 2023, 32 persons were relocated from Cyprus and a pledge was made to relocate another 100 individuals residing in the Mediterranean area, including 70 individuals from Cyprus.[5] These relocations from Cyprus took place in the context of a voluntary pledge linked to the negotiations on the EU Migration Pact.[6] In 2024, another 18 persons were relocated by March 2024; 15 persons were still waiting for relocation later that year, but no further information is available on this. In 2025, in the context of the implementation of the EU Pact, the Belgian Minister for Asylum and Migration has announced that Belgium would not opt for relocations but rather for a financial contribution to the Solidarity Pool.[7]
[1] news.belgium, Mise en œuvre du Pacte européen sur la migration et l’asile, 24 December 2025, available here.
[2] Law proposal containing changes to the Aliens Act, 12 March 2026, available here; Law proposal containing changes to the CALL procedure, 10 March 2026, available here.
[3] CGRS, Changes introduced by the EU Asylum and Migration Pact, available here. See also here.
[4] Amendments to Council procedures effective June 12, 2026, pursuant to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, available here. This includes an explainer document which can be found here.
[5] EMN, Annual report on Migration and Asylum in Belgium 2023, available in English here, p. 31.
[6] Information provided by cabinet of the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, 25 March 2024.
[7] Anneleen Van Bossuyt, Europe sharpens migration- and asylum policy, 8 December 2025, available in Dutch here; EMN Belgium, Belgium commits financial contribution to EU Annual Solidarity Pool for 2026, 18 December 2025, available in English here.