France, April 11 -- The EU parliament on Wednesday adopted a contentious reform of Europe's asylum policies that will harden border procedures and force all the bloc's 27 nations to share responsibility.

The parliament's main political groups overcame opposition from far-right and far-left parties to pass the EU Asylum and Migration Pact - a sweeping reform nearly a decade in the making.

It will come into force in 2026, after the European Commissionsets out in coming months how it would be implemented.

New border centres will hold irregular migrants while their asylum requests are vetted, and speed up deportations of those deemed inadmissible.

It will also require EU countries to take in thousands of asylum-seekers from "frontline" st...