Although the Covid-19 outbreak has reshuffled Germany’s agenda for the upcoming EU Council presidency, a three-point plan by the German government provided new impetus to the discussion about reforming the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This Policy Brief analyses how Germany’s three-point plan, centred on the idea of a border procedure, compares to previous reform proposals and which elements of the plan can move the reform process forward. It concludes by identifying three areas in which the upcoming German Council presidency can adopt a pragmatic approach to forge a compromise in the Council.
In the election campaign, the topic of migration has been conspicuous mainly by its absence. However, this should not obscure the fact that the new federal government has difficult questions to answer: What model of responsibility-sharing is it seeking at the EU level to advance the stalled asylum reform? What about the EU-Turkey agreement? And what options are there to expand legal escape routes? In this policy brief, Lucas Rasche writes that an answer to these questions first needs a credible narrative of what a "European solution" in migration policy can look like.
Für die neue Bundesregierung ist die Krise an der EU-Außengrenze zu Belarus
eine erste Bewährungsprobe für den angekündigten Paradigmenwechsel
ihrer Migrationspolitik. Im Fokus steht dabei die Frage, wie Deutschland
und die EU einer instrumentalisierten Migrationsbewegung entgegentreten
können. Die EU-Kommission hat dazu jüngst eine Anpassung des Schengener
Grenzkodex sowie eine neue „Instrumentalisierungs-Verordnung“ vorgeschlagen. Angesichts dieser Entwicklungen erörtert dieser Policy Brief,
welche Handlungsoptionen der neuen Bundesregierung offenstehen, um die
Vorhaben des Koalitionsvertrags auf europäischer Ebene umzusetzen.
Given the recent crises in Belarus and Afghanistan, President Macron has declared protecting the EU’s external borders as a main priority of the upcoming French Council Presidency. Yet, in this policy brief, Lucas Rasche argues that the French Council Presidency should move beyond a restrictive approach to reform the EU’s asylum and migration policy. A less politicised approach can thereby help focus on solving technical issues to make progress where it is severely needed. This is especially the case when it comes to enhancing the number of safe and legal pathways to protection in the EU.
On 11 June, the Commission presented its proposal for so-called “Talent Partnerships” as a framework for member states to engage strategically with selected third countries on legal migration. Based on several pilot projects, the Talent Partnerships should allow member states to address their skills needs whilst improving cooperation in areas such as readmission or migration management. This Policy Brief takes a closer look behind the illusive terminology and asks: what exactly are Talent Partnerships? After discussing their major challenges and opportunities, the Policy Brief outlines three principles that should guide the Partnerships’ implementation: clear and realistic objectives, a focus on countries beyond the EU’s immediate neighbourhood, and avoiding negative conditionality
70 years after it was signed, the Geneva Refugee Convention is degenerating into an empty phrase. Its central promise that no one with a „well-founded fear of persecution“ may be turned back stands in stark contrast to the current situation at Europe‘s borders. Yet, the EU, with its value-based self-image, has an essential role to play in guaranteeing the Convention’s promise for the next 70 years and beyond. So even if member states will not completely abandon the construction of a „Fortress Europe“, they should at least consider building rawbridges. Policy Fellow Lucas Rasche and Migration Scholar Judith Kohlenberger explain how.
Community sponsorship has become an increasingly popular instrument for setting up safe and legal pathways to protection in recent years. As part of its New Pact on Asylum and Migration, the European Commission now assumed ownership of the concept and called for a distinct "European model” of community sponsorship. However, the Commission remains vague
as to how a European approach should look like. This Policy Brief analyses existing sponsorship schemes in EU member states and argues that a “European model” should be based on two principles: the additionality of sponsorship schemes and their focus on the protection of beneficiaries.
This Policy Brief maps the EU’s immediate response to the arrival of more than three million Ukrainian refugees. While the decision to grant them immediate access to protection by activating the Temporary Protection Directive has raised the question whether current events will lead to a paradigm shift in EU asylum and migration policy, the EU’s greater test is what member states and the Commission will do next. The Policy Brief discusses why a mechanism for the fair sharing of responsibility is urgently needed and outlines what such a scheme could look. It closes by arguing that the current welcoming of Ukrainian refugees is less a paradigm shift in EU asylum and migration policy than an example of an increased politicisation of access to protection.