European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has come out in favour of accelerating the deportation of illegal immigrants from the European Union.
This is a change from von der Leyen’s earlier position. In 2015, when she was German defence minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel, von der Leyen supported Merkel’s policy of support for immigration. She said: “We should embrace and encourage this momentum, then integration will succeed.”
On April 29, in a speech at a congress of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Valencia, von der Leyen said: “We need better results on returns. My friends, it cannot be that only 20 per cent of those who have a negative asylum decision actually leave Europe.
“We cannot go on like this. It is way too low, that figure, and we cannot explain it to our citizens,” she said. “We must do better.”
Von der Leyen added: “Being tough on migration allows us to pave the way for much-needed labour migration. Because Europe should always be open to more talent and more skills.”
According to the commission president, the number of illegal border crossings into the EU has fallen by 30 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Von der Leyen attributed that to better co-operation with the EU’s southern neighbour states. The bloc has already signed an agreement with Tunisia with the aim of curtailing illegal migration and a similar contract with Morocco was in the works.
On 16 April, the commission presented the first EU-wide list of safe third countries. Requests for asylum from nationals of these states would be processed faster – three months instead of six – as they had little chance of success. The list included Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Kosovo.
In her speech, von der Leyen also demanded action on reducing the number of illegal arrivals to the EU. She added, though, that Europe “will fulfil its international obligations”.
Her position on migration has shifted over the years. In 2015, as the refugee crisis intensified, von der Leyen, then Germany’s defence minister, told journalists about how she had taken into her home a 20-year-old Syrian refugee from Damascus.
“He has enriched our lives”, she told the press, adding: “So many refugees want to come and create something in Germany.”
In September 2020, 10 months after becoming commission president, von der Leyen said in a speech: “Migration has always been a fact for Europe – and it will always be. Throughout centuries, it has defined our societies, enriched our cultures and shaped many of our lives.
“And this will always be the case.”
As the popular opinion in Europe turned against excessive immigration, so did the EC president’s tone.
In October 2024, she said the EU could “draw lessons” from the recent Italian policy of processing migrants offshore in Albania.
In February 2025, von der Leyen said that “irregular migrants who have no right to stay in the EU have to return home to their country”, and promised “a proposal to speed up these returns”.
Brussels Signals asked von der Leyen’s office what measures the EC President was planning to meet her demands for more deportations but had not heard back at the time of writing.
