A number of measures concerning search and rescue (SAR) operations and disembarkations following those operations have been incorporated in the “new pact on asylum and migration” (hereafter pact) adopted by the European Commission on 23 September 2020. This has not happened by chance: as is well known, SAR operations in the Mediterranean Sea have been a key theme and a reason of legal and political disputes between EU Member States and the EU Institutions in recent years. Mediterranean coastal States have demanded solidarity, both in carrying out SAR operations and in relocating rescued people.