KYIV: First-time applications from people seeking asylum in European Union countries fell by 13 percent last year, the first decline in them since 2020, data from the bloc’s statistics office Eurostat showed on Thursday.
Eurostat reported 912,000 first-time asylum requests from non-EU citizens across the bloc’s 27 member states, down from more than 1 million in 2023.
Syrians made up the largest share of applicants, like every year since 2013, accounting for 16 percent of the first-time requests last year. The next biggest groups came from Venezuela and Afghanistan, accounting for 8 percent each.
Eurostat said nearly 148,000 first-time applications came from Syria in 2024, down 19.2 percent from a year earlier.
Of the total number of applications for international protection in EU countries, more than three quarters were received by Germany, Spain, Italy and France. Unaccompanied minors made up 3.9 percent of the applicants, Eurostat said.
First-time asylum applications in EU fall 13% in 2024, Eurostat says
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First-time asylum applications in EU fall 13% in 2024, Eurostat says
- Eurostat reported 912,000 first-time asylum requests from non-EU citizens
- Syrians made up the largest share of applicants
Macron says EU move on Mercosur deal a ‘bad surprise’
- “For France, this is a surprise, and a bad one,” Macron said
- The move showed “bad manners toward the European Parliament“
PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron denounced Friday the European Commission’s “bad manners” following its decision to provisionally apply the Mercosur trade deal and called the move a “bad surprise” for France.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier Friday that the European Union will implement the mammoth trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc while waiting for a top court’s ruling on its legality.
“For France, this is a surprise, and a bad one,” Macron said in a strongly-worded statement, adding the move showed “bad manners toward the European Parliament.”
“The European Commission has made the unilateral decision to provisionally apply the agreement with Mercosur, even though the European Parliament has not voted on it. It is thus taking on a very heavy responsibility.”
Speaking alongside Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob, Macron said he would make sure “that what we have negotiated hard for over the last few months is respected.”
“We will be uncompromising on compliance with these rules, because Europe has significantly tightened the rules on our producers in recent years,” Macron added.
“And so I will never defend an agreement that is lax on imports and tough on what we produce at home, because it is inconsistent for European consumers and criminal for European sovereignty,” he said.
