EU deportation bill stalls as governments and MEPs fight over when to start

Talks over the highly-controversial EU deportation bill collapsed on Thursday (21 May) morning, as negotiations failed to agree on when the new rules would kick into force.

With a new round of talks now set for 1 June, the contentious regulation has roused heated debate on timing.

EU states agreed to launch the legislation at the earliest in July next year, after first proposing a two-year delay. The parliament, however, wanted an immediate launch, but agreed on 1 January 2027 as a compromise.

But the five-month launch difference remained unresolved following marathon closed door talks in Strasbourg on Wednesday, which started around 14:30 and ended later in the evening.

The council had also proposed a compromise to launch parts of the regulation earlier.

But François-Xavier Bellamy, a French centre-right MEP with the European People’s Party (EPP), refused, according to an EU source.

It is likely Bellamy wants the regulation to start ahead of the French presidential elections set for April next year, where polls suggest a possible win for the far-right National Rally.

Deep-dive timeline

The far-right groups in the parliament on Wednesday evening had also implored Bellamy to accept the compromise on staggered implementation, said the source, citing Dutch MEP Marieke Ehlers from the Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Sweden’s Charlie Weimers from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR).

“What was very surprising in these discussions was the fact that the PfE and ECR groups very quickly sided with the council in order to reach an agreement very quickly without bothering to negotiate this delay,” said a second EU source.