Migrants, Viminale zeroes out Dublin cases predating new EU Pact

The Viminale considers all alleged “Dublin returnees” who arrived in Europe before June 12, 2026 — the date the European Union’s new Migration Pact came into force — to be zeroed out. The position, reported by the ANSA agency, comes as Berlin maintains a rigid line on returns to Italy under the Dublin system, which governs which member state must handle the examination of asylum applications.

According to the available reconstruction, the zeroing out of cases predating June 12 would have been agreed with several European countries, including Germany itself: an agreement that, if confirmed in its practical application, would close part of the bilateral dispute accumulated in recent months over the transfer of asylum seekers between the two countries.

The matter fits into a broader political context concerning Germany. In Brussels, Chancellor Merz’s moves are being watched closely ahead of the September 6 vote in Saxony-Anhalt, one of the German Länder, where the far-right AfD party is leading in polls cited by the source. Berlin’s hard line on returns in the migration file therefore falls within a domestic German electoral phase that precedes the regional vote by about a month.

The available dossier does not provide the overall number of Dublin cases involved in the zeroing out, nor the names of the other European countries that would have joined the agreement besides Germany. Nor is it possible, based on the material gathered, to establish whether the agreement has already found concrete application in ongoing transfers or whether it remains for now a political position of the Viminale not yet translated into administrative practice.

The news currently comes from a single source, ANSA; no independent confirmations are available. However, this is a position attributed to a government institution — the Viminale — on a matter within its direct competence, an element that strengthens the reliability of the source despite the absence of cross-checking.

The June 12, 2026 deadline, the date the new EU Migration Pact came into force, remains the watershed against which the practical durability of the agreement between Rome and Berlin will be measured in the coming weeks.