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After eight years of strenuous negotiations, the European Parliament has given its consent to the seminal reform package. This endpoint of the negotiations is the starting shot for implementation, which might prove the at least as cumbersome. Professor Thym explains practical pitfalls in an interview with WELT TV (‘Die Verfahren sind zu kompliziert und dauern viel zu lange’) with regard to border procedures, secondary movements and return. It is in the self-interest of the EU institutions and national governments to do everything in their power to ensure that the new rules are being implemented in practice; otherwise, the population might lose confidence in the ability of mainstream politicians to manage asylum in humane and orderly manner. Legislative and conceptual pitfalls have been described in greater detail in contributions for the Odysseus Network (‘European Realpolitik’), the Verfassungsblog (‘Showdown zur Asylpolitik’) and in an Open Access Edited Volume (‘Reforming the Common European Asylum System’).