Migration past crisis but still a big issue, says agency chief
Europe is past the worst of its peak migration flows but cannot afford to calm its efforts to deal with the issue, the head of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) has told Euronews in an interview.
The ICMPD is an international organisation that supports governments and institutions in developing and implementing long-term strategies to manage and govern migration.
"We're not in an exceptional situation anymore,' said Michael Spindelegger, reflecting on the peak migration flows of 2015–2016 in the Vienna office of the agency, adding: 'But with nearly one million asylum applications again last year, we can't afford to calm down.'
Despite a big drop in irregular migration to the EU this year, migration remains a thorny political issue in many countries.
Michael Spindelegger, a former MEP from Austria, has been in charge of the ICMPD for almost a decade, told Euronews the EU is still in need of a 'balanced and creative' approach to migration policy.
Spindelegger expressed support for emerging migration models, such as Italy's controversial plan to process asylum seekers in Albania—an initiative he described as 'innovative' and legally distinct from the UK's Rwanda scheme.
'The key difference is Italy remains responsible. It's their authorities running the process,' he said. 'If this works, it could be a model for other European countries.'
Asked about proposals from countries like Denmark that have seen the country come up against the European Convention on Human Rights, Spindelegger was open.
'Everyone is invited to explore intelligent, modern ways of handling migration,' he said.
To curb irregular migration, Denmark has deployed a mixture of policies from paying migrants to return to their home countries to the so-called "ghetto law" that aims to limit the concentration of ethnic minorities in certain neighbourhoods.
Denmark and Italy published an open letter -backed by a handful of other EU nations - criticising the European Court of Human Rights for going "too far" in interpreting the law on migration matters.
The recently ratified EU Migration and Asylum Pact—years in the making—has sparked division among member states, with Hungary, Poland, and the Netherlands voicing strong opposition.
Still, Spindelegger called the pact a 'big step forward', dismissing claims that it's falling apart.
'There is always opposition in Europe. The fact that we reached a breakthrough after so many years of deadlock is a success in itself,' he noted.
He emphasised that national initiatives like Italy's do not conflict with the pact, which is primarily about streamlining asylum procedures and strengthening border controls.
On the contentious issue of returning migrants to countries deemed 'safe', Spindelegger highlighted the complexity of the debate—particularly in relation to Syria.
'It depends very much on developments on the ground,' he said. 'In parts of Syria, especially along the Mediterranean coast, conditions might be improving, but we need real guarantees for minority protection.'
He urged EU states to engage directly with Syrian authorities before any broader policy shifts, warning against premature decisions.
EU ministers will meet in Luxembourg next week for talks on migration and asylum.
Syria's new government has agreed to give UN inspectors access to suspected former nuclear sites immediately, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.
Rafael Grossi confirmed the development after talks with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and other officials in Damascus.
The UN agency's aim is "to bring total clarity over certain activities that took place in the past that were, in the judgement of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons", Grossi said.
He described the new Syrian government as "committed to opening up to the world, to international cooperation", and expressed hope that the inspection process could be completed within months.
In 2024, an IAEA team visited some sites of interest while former President Bashar al-Assad was still in power.
Since al-Assad's fall in December, the IAEA has been seeking to restore access to sites associated with Syria's nuclear programme.
Under the former dictator's rule, Syria is believed to have operated an extensive clandestine nuclear programme, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.
The IAEA described the reactor as being "not configured to produce electricity," raising the concern that Damascus sought to construct a nuclear bomb there by producing weapons-grade plutonium.
The reactor site only became public knowledge after Israel destroyed the facility in airstrikes in 2007.
Syria later levelled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA's questions about it.
Grossi said inspectors plan to return to the reactor in Deir el-Zour as well as to three other sites.
A miniature neutron source reactor in Damascus and a facility in Homs that can process yellow-cake uranium are among the sites under IAEA safeguards.
While there are no indications that there have been releases of radiation from the sites, Grossi said the watchdog is concerned that "enriched uranium can be lying somewhere and could be reused, could be smuggled, could be trafficked".
He said al-Sharaa, who has courted Western governments since taking power, had shown a "very positive disposition to talk to us and to allow us to carry out the activities we need to".
Apart from resuming inspections, Grossi said the IAEA is prepared to transfer equipment for nuclear medicine and to help rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and oncology infrastructure in a health system severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.
"And the president has expressed to me he's interested in exploring, in the future, nuclear energy as well," Grossi said.
A number of other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, are pursuing nuclear energy in some form.
Grossi said Syria would most likely be looking into small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones.
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