State of Asylum Conference: Implementing the Pact, together with credible entry and return policies, are key to restoring public trust in migration management

On 18 June 2025, the EUAA hosted the EU’s first annual State of Asylum Conference. Discussions centred around a key question: is EU Asylum at a Crossroads? To answer, the Conference brought together high-level European policy makers including Ministers of Interior, senior officials, and representatives of international and civil society organisations to debate the past, present and future of the EU’s evolving migration  policy agenda, in the face of a challenging international security environment. This week, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) hosted the EUAA’s first State of Asylum Conference. The event brought together around 1 000 online and in-person attendees to debate the evolving EU migration and asylum policy agenda. Opening the Conference, the EUAA’s Executive Director, Ms. Nina GREGORI, framed its central, titular question by asking participants to reflect on whether the EU’s migration and asylum systems are at a crossroads and, if they are, what choices are available to policy makers. With evidence-based policy-making being a core principle of democratic societies, she stressed the value of the Agency’s work and most notably, the recently-published Asylum Report 2025 as a factual basis that set the stage for the day’s discussions. Looking to the future, the first panel discussion, entitled “Migration and Asylum at a Crossroads: Where do we go from here?” invited high level European policymakers to reflect on where European migration policy might go next....