One hundred days into the EU's new Migration and Asylum Pact (PACT), Greece is outperforming expectations set by critics...

One hundred days into the EU's new Migration and Asylum Pact (PACT), Greece is outperforming expectations set by critics who predicted system collapse. Greek agencies across the relevant ministries have met the pact's demanding processing deadlines while maintaining reception standards and procedural guarantees for asylum claims. Reception facilities across the country still have significant spare capacity despite the usual spike in August arrivals, a stark contrast to the overcrowding seen in previous years. Migrant flows remain elevated in absolute numbers but are trending steadily downward compared to prior years. Migration Minister Plevris is credited with securing bilateral agreements with Central and Northern European countries that have effectively stopped asylum seeker returns to Greece under the old Dublin Regulation framework, bringing that controversial chapter to a close. The deals were signed in the final stretch before PACT took effect on June 12. Greece also scored diplomatic wins at the EU level. The European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen adopted a Greek proposal by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to create an emergency mechanism for managing hybrid threat situations at the EU's external borders. A separate Greek-backed proposal for "return hubs" outside the EU is also advancing, with the Ministry of Migration leading implementation. The article, published in To Vima, does acknowledge persistent structural problems. Interpreter shortages, supply deficits, and the prolonged uncertainty faced by contract staff at the ministry continue to hamper operations. Return rates for those denied international protection remain weak, despite being at their highest since 2021, creating pressure inside pre-departure detention centers. Still, the author draws a clear line between those administrative shortcomings and the doomsday predictions made by certain critics ahead of June 12, some of whom publicly forecast that Greece would be ejected from the EU solidarity mechanism in its very first cycle. Those predictions have not materialized. The European Commission already issued a positive evaluation in June covering Greece's preparatory work b...