a) the recast of the Common European Asylum System (2013), contrasting it to the latest developments in
b) border policies, such as the recast of the FRONTEX directive (2011), the EUROSUR directive (2013), the External Sea Borders Directive (2014), the re-launch of the Schengen Border Code, the proposed “Smart Borders System” as well as
c) regular and irregular migration policies, such as the Returns directive (2008), the Blue Card directive (2009) and its possible recast, the Single Permit directive (2011) and the coming proposals for regular (labour) migration.
We argue that the new power relations in Brussels with regard to the incumbent, re-shaped Commission, as well as the new European Parliament and possibly changed weighting of votes in the Council from November 2014 may produce significant shifts not only in intra- but also in inter-institutional alliances. This represents a real challenge to the “liberal constraint thesis”, given that more restrictive actor constellations seem highly probable in the new legislative term. This is why we compare several case studies within each sub-policy area in order to differentiate if and how the “liberal constraint thesis” holds in each case. The paper is based both on desktop studies and on interviews conducted in the EU institutions, with non-governmental organizations and experts.
