The sharp increase of irregular immigration into Europe via the Mediterranean in 2015 has moved the issue to the very top of the European agenda. The EU’s migration and refugee policy now encompasses a large number of different instruments and agreements. The policy area is further complicated by the fact that the responsibilities and competencies within foreign, security, development and economic policy or of humanitarian actors are often not clearly delimited. On the one hand, it is a declared objective of the European Commission to realise the most comprehensive approach possible, especially with regard to cooperation with partner states that are important for migration policy. On the other hand, this carries the risk of internal EU conflicts of interest and has in the past led to contradictory priority-setting and tardy implementation, and to the current crisis in the common asylum system.
From Short-term Protection to Longer-term Perspectives
doi:10.18449/2022C26
A Greater Focus on the Turkish Host Society Is Required
doi:10.18449/2022C07
Contribution to a Research Paper 2021/RP 10, 13.12.2021, 125 Pages, pp. 83–86
Are They Really Game Changers?
doi:10.18449/2021RP08
The existing framework regulating EU-Turkey migration cooperation ends this year. The European Council Conclusions announced on March 25 acknowledged the importance of the EU’s financial support to the Syrian refugees in Turkey (also in Jordan and Lebanon) and acknowledge that the EU’s cooperation with Turkey on migration management “should be strengthened, notably in areas such as border protection, combatting illegal migration, as well as the return of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers to Turkey, in accordance with the EU-Turkey Statement, applied in a non-discriminatory manner.” Experts from CATS Network and other institutions responded to our question.
Hundreds of people are living in appalling conditions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, waiting near the border to Croatia, which they see as their path into the EU. Damien McGuinness talks to Peter van der Auweraert, Nadine Biehler and Dušan Reljić about solutions to the humanitarian crisis now, and EU migration long-term.