Suchergebnisse

The unfolding of Europe's 'refugee crisis' from 2015 onward has put the external dimension of asylum policy at the top of the European Union's (EU) agenda. This article analyses policy change in this expanding area of EU external action, focusing on the role played by exogenous factors and EU institutional dynamics. It argues that, in line with global debates and initiatives to expand the scope of durable solutions for refugees, EU institutions have endeavoured to place development at the centre of the EU approach to forced displacement. As shown by the cases of cooperation with Turkey and African countries, however, concerns over increasing migrant and refugee movements in many Member States have led to the simultaneous deployment of a policy agenda centred on containment, in which development aid is framed as a tool to pursue migration control objectives. This article concludes that the uneasy relation that exists between these two policy agendas calls into question the overall coherence of EU external action in the field of asylum and refugee protection.

This article investigates the evolution of the governance of the Frontex agency by focusing on joint operations, the area of activity that has posed the greatest challenges in finding an appropriate distribution of tasks and responsibilities between the member states and the agency. Adopting insights from rational choice institutionalism, this article argues that successive reforms of the agency have led to the inclusion of hard law elements in an attempt to address the main shortcomings of a governance framework that was initially predominantly based on soft law. However, sovereignty issues and institutional constraints that characterise this area of cooperation have induced member states to retain some of the central features of the previous soft law architecture. As a consequence, the reform process has resulted in the adoption of a 'hybrid' system of governance that mixes hard and soft elements in an attempt to reconcile competing policy priorities.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs on request of the Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties and Justice, aims to provide a detailed mapping and analysis of the central legal changes and issues characterising the five main legislative proposals accompanying the Pact on Migration and Asylum, presented by the Commission in September 2020. The legislative instruments under consideration include a new Screening Regulation, an amended proposal for an Asylum Procedures Regulation, an amended proposal revising the Eurodac Regulation, a new Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, and a new Crisis and Force Majeure Regulation. As a second step, the study provides a critical assessment of the five proposals as to their legal coherence, fundamental rights compliance, and application of the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility enshrined in Article 80 TFEU.