| Few policy topics are as charged and important to politicians and public opinion as migration. This morning, the UK government quietly admitted that Rwanda would be paid an additional £150 million under the new treaty agreed this week to salvage its cash for asylum seekers’ deal. This will take the scheme’s cost to £290 million without a single asylum seeker having been flown to the East African state. Legal and political opposition makes it highly unlikely that the scheme will ever be operational. Is this good policy-making? Almost certainly not. But if the desperation – and chaotic incompetence – is not quite as acute in Brussels and European capitals as in Rishi Sunak’s government, EU leaders know that public opinion across the bloc is exercised by what they perceive to be high and, critically, uncontrolled immigration. EU lawmakers remain deadlocked on plans to reform the bloc’s migration and asylum laws, with negotiations now set to continue until Christmas week. Diplomatic sources told Euractiv that this week’s trilogues produced no real breakthroughs. That shifts the spotlight to trilogues on 18 and 19 December. The Spanish government, which holds the six-month rotating EU Council presidency, has vowed to get a political agreement on the files before the end of the year. All presidencies make such promises, but the political stakes are particularly high in this case. There is a sense of desperation among European politicians, if not to actually do something, then to at least be seen as doing something. | 