Nearly a year ago the EU unveiled what it called its ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’ with much fanfare. The Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, boasted that the pact ‘means that Europeans will decide who comes to the EU and who can stay, not the smugglers’.

As is the way with the bureaucratic behemoth that is Brussels, the Pact won’t start to be implemented until the summer of 2026.