19/06/2026
On 17 June, the European Parliament approved the Return Regulation with 418 votes in favour, 218 against, and 30 abstentions. As the result was announced, centre and far-right MEPs cheered and chanted “send them back.”
It was a telling moment, and not a surprising one.
What the regulation does
The Return Regulation creates a new common EU framework for removing third-country nationals whose stay is deemed irregular. It was proposed by the Commission in March 2025 and is framed as a complement to the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which entered into force just days earlier on 12 June.
The regulation’s stated goal is to harmonise national return practices, which had diverged significantly under the existing Return Directive (2008/115/CE). Only around 20% of EU return orders are currently carried out, a figure both the Commission and the Parliament have used as the justification for stronger, centralised rules.
In practice, the new law introduces:
- Deportation centres outside the EU, through agreements with third-countries
- Detention periods of up to two years
- Practically unlimited re-entry bans for people who have been removed
French Green MEP Mélissa Camara described the measures enabled by the vote as “no less degrading and inhumane than those of ICE in the United States.”
The coalition that made it happen
The regulation passed because the European People’s Party (EPP) once again aligned with far-right groups of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN), to get it over the line. The post-vote celebrations were shared across those benches, while the opposite side responded with chants of “shame on you”.
This is not a one-off. Since the launch of the EU Far-Right Tracker in November 2025, we have recorded over 20 instances of the EPP voting alongside far-right groups to deliver legislative outcomes. The Return Regulation is the latest, and one of the most consequential one. The EPP lends the far right credibility; the far right lends the EPP votes.
What this means for civil society
The political landscape in the EU has shifted. Legislation that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, offshore detention, near-permanent entry bans, deportation infrastructure built outside EU borders, is now law.
And the vote did not happen out of nowhere. A new report by ENAR, based on fieldwork across five EU border regions and three countries, documents how racialised profiling and violence in migration enforcement were already widespread before this regulation passed. The EPP–far right alliance has now given that pattern a legal framework.
The framework has been widely contested by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR, the UN Special Rapporteur on migrants’ rights, and several civil society organisations. Key concerns include the lack of suspensive effect for appeals, meaning people could be deported before having the opportunity to challenge the decision, and the absence of adequate safeguards for children and vulnerable groups in return hubs, including specifically LGBTI migrants.
Civil society organisations have warned that several provisions stand in contradiction to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, EU primary law and risk creating significant legal challenges after adoption. Expect this regulation to be tested before the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights.
For civil society organisations working on migration, fundamental rights, and democratic accountability, the challenge is not just to respond to individual pieces of legislation. It is to name and track the political alliance making them possible.
That is what the Far-Right Tracker is for.