Migrants in Lampedusa island, Italy, on Sep 16, 2023 (Photo: AFP/VNA)

The deal was announced by Spain, the EU Council's current president, on social network X (formerly Twitter) following a meeting of EU ambassadors.

It was reached after Germany and Italy agreed to a compromise. Germany agreed to allow the Italian government to use emergency measures to respond to migrants rescued by non-governmental organizations.

In return, Italy accepted Germany's request to maintain minimum humanitarian standards at migrant reception centers.

Under the new agreement, in a crisis situation, the first European country where refugees arrive can ask other EU members to accept some of those asylum seekers after just 4 weeks of processing applications, not 18 months. This will avoid the bottleneck of the 2015 refugee crisis, when millions of people flocked to Europe and some EU members had to accept more asylum seekers than others.

“The current situation once again shows how urgently Europe needs a common system. It must be an orderly system, with clear rules and effective procedures for asylum and migration policy. We need a common European asylum system now,” said Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.