Navigating Change in the European External Migration Policy

The EU has developed its Global Approach to Migration and Mobility as a possible way to establish comprehensive cooperation with non-EU partners from the South on a whole range of migration issues, including the fight against irregular migration, legal migration, migration and development, and asylum policy. Later on it has been extended to the Eastern neighbourhood. While in the South these new provisions introducing EU as an actor for cooperation met a big void, on the East they had to be squeezed into a crowded field packed with intergovernmental processes, other international organizations on European level and a well-developed tool-box of the European Neighbourhood Policy, particularly active in the JHA area. No wonder that for a long time the EU-level tools of the Global Approach (such as visa facilitation, readmission, mobility partnerships) were particularly successful in the Eastern Neighbourhood, while stagnating in the Southern one.

The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and subsequently the revamping of the European Neighbourhood Policy were supposed to change the dynamics. However, in fact the biggest change came from the Arab Spring and its aftermath. On one hand, the change of regimes in the Southern Mediterranean countries impacted on the list of priorities for new governments; on the other, the ever growing self-confidence of Russia on international scene started hampering EU influence in the post-Soviet space. These geopolitical considerations had a visible impact on the way ENP, and especially migration policy, has been conceived and implemented in both regions.