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EU digital visa system registers more than 300,000 visitors in four days /// Commission launches its Pact for the Mediterranean strategy /// Parliament to discuss upcoming Migration Pact report and solidarity pool /// Rabat, Khartoum and Niamey Processes to join forces in Lagos

EU digital visa system registers more than 300,000 visitors in four days

The EU’s digital Entry/Exit System for non-EU visitors came online on 12 October 2025, registering more than 300,000 border crossings by 16 October. Described as one of the “world’s most modern border management systems” by Europol, the system collects passport, biometric and historical travel data, ostensibly to streamline border crossings but with a strong migration enforcement component. The system is part of a wider EU ecosystem of interoperable surveillance and control programmes.

Commission launches its Pact for the Mediterranean strategy

On 16 October 2025, the Commission announced its Pact for the Mediterranean. Migration management is a key aspect: “A whole-of-route approach to migration management will be promoted as well as a common approach to integrated border management and security, which will include operational partnerships to counter migrant smuggling”.

Dubravka Šuica, the Commissioner for the Mediterranean, is one of four Commissioners (out of a total of 26) with responsibility for migration policies.

The Pact is expected to be discussed at a meeting of the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, and (it is hoped) endorsed by EU and southern Mediterranean partners, in November 2025. While there is little detail as yet, the Commission is expected to produce an Action File on the Pact for the Mediterranean in early 2026.

Implementation of the Pact will be monitored by a group of senior officials from the EU and “southern Mediterranean partners,” which will meet twice a year.

Parliament to discuss upcoming Migration Pact report and solidarity pool

At the European Parliament plenary on 12 November 2025, MEPs will be presented with an update on the Commission’s first “Annual Asylum and Migration report”. The report forms part of the governance of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum. MEPs will also hear statements on the Annual Solidarity pool.

Rabat, Khartoum and Niamey Processes to join forces in Lagos

On 4 and 5 November 2025, partner countries of the Rabat, Khartoum and Niamey Processes will meet for a first Joint Thematic Meeting. The meeting, co-chaired by Nigeria and France and hosted in Lagos, appears to have a strong focus on ‘whole-of-route’ approaches to migration control. The meeting will “serve as a stepping stone toward greater operational, institutional and policy coordination between countries of origin, transit, and destination”. The meeting is expected to produce recommendations for concrete actions, in order to “remain responsive to the evolving dynamics along African and European migratory routes.”