This article critically examines the ongoing challenges in developing and implementing the European Union’s migration and asylum policy, focusing on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum adopted in May 2024. The research explores the EU’s struggle to build a coherent, effective, and fair migration system amid diverging national interests, recurring crises, and the rising securitization of migration. The analysis traces the evolution of EU migration policy, its legal and institutional foundations, and the role of both supranational and national actors, alongside external factors. Despite reforms like the Schengen Agreement and successive policy programs, EU migration governance remains fragmented by ambiguous treaties and tensions between solidarity and national sovereignty. The New Pact introduces standardised procedures and a solidarity mechanism, but its effectiveness is limited by voluntary aspects and opt-outs, risking deeper divisions. The article concludes that, while the Pact improves coordination, it falls short of overcoming the EU’s core institutional and political obstacles, and effective migration management will require balancing security, rights, and fair responsibility-sharing in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.