The European Union and the migrants crisis in the Mediterranean (original) (raw)
Related papers
Conclusion. EU Maritime Foreign and Security Policies: Aims, Actors, and Mechanisms of Integration
The Maritime Turn in EU Foreign and Security Policies
This book set out to provide a comprehensive understanding of EU maritime foreign and security policies, asking to what extent, how, and why the EU is a maritime power in the making. The studies confirm that the EU indeed is becoming maritime global power. The EU now has its own Maritime Security Strategy with a functioning and comprehensive action plan, two major ongoing military naval operations, to a large degree acts with one voice at the international scene, and it has taken important steps in the development of an Arctic policy. In the maritime domain, the EU is no longer only a soft power but increasingly uses military means to respond to new security threats and challenges, also known as 'soft threats' such as piracy and migration. The high number of planned actions agreed in the EUMSS and action plan as well as the maritime focus in the EU's new Global Strategy suggests that we can expect maritime integration and cooperation, including in the military domain, to continue to grow in the years to come. The UK's withdrawal from the EU and the US' more reluctant tone towards guaranteeing Europe's defence will only serve to push this development further. After all, EU leaders have already agreed to deepen cooperation on security and defence in the face of these events (European Council 2017). The findings in this book are thus important also for our understanding of the EU as such. Being the only remaining intergovernmental policy area in the EU and the one most strongly linked to member states' sovereignty, EU foreign and security policies have been referred as a sine qua non in order to achieve full European integration. And EU maritime foreign and security policy indeed takes collective
EU MARITIME SECURITY What is it? Why does it matter?
European Union has lately launched an effort to consolidate its position as a global security actor. In this sense the 2003 European Security Strategy was the first substantial step to this direction. Presently EU is close to editing a very important security strategy document, that of Maritime Security Strategy. This paper outlines the added value of this effort in light of the new emerging threats and challenges included in the document. Initially a comprehensive reference is made to the recent steps and efforts that paved the way and the opportunity for us to today to actually discuss the launch of an EU Maritime Security. Further on, an essential analysis of the new security threats as included in the strategy document follows, along with the expansion of the issues under consideration. Our central viewpoint is that "strategy through synergies" or else "cooperative strategy" at the global level and essentially in line with the European acquis and international law, is the axis -path that EU should follow. In conclusion, we believe that the global aspect of maritime security should not outweigh its regional and national elements respectively.
EU Immigration & Asylum Law and Policy, 2023
UCLouvain (Belgium), members of the Equipe droits et migrations (EDEM) While the New Pact on Migration and Asylum remains stuck in Brussels between negotiations and renewals of the Council's presidencies, 'emergencies' routinely shaken the EU migration and asylum governance and prompt a plethora of soft law solutions. These acts have been mushrooming in the last few years. The most recent example is the EU Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean, presented on 21 November 2022 by the Commissioner for Home Affairs and later endorsed by the extraordinary JHA Council on 25 November 2022. It lists 20 actions 'to address the immediate and ongoing challenges along the Central Mediterranean route'.
The EU Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean: Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
EU Migration Law Blog, 2023
While the New Pact on Migration and Asylum remains stuck in Brussels between negotiations and renewals of the Council’s presidencies, ‘emergencies’ routinely shaken the EU migration and asylum governance and prompt a plethora of soft law solutions. These acts have been mushrooming in the last few years. The most recent example is the EU Action Plan for the Central Mediterranean, presented on 21 November 2022 by the Commissioner for Home Affairs and later endorsed by the extraordinary JHA Council on 25 November 2022.
The EU Approach on Migration in the Mediterranean
European Parliament, 2021
This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee , examines the EU approach on migration in the Mediterranean, covering developments from the 2015 refugee crisis up to the Covid-19 pandemic, assessing the effect these events have had on the design, implementation, and reform of EU policy on asylum, migration and external border control, and documenting the ramifications these changes have had on the actors who operate and are impacted by these policies, including immigration authorities, civil society organisations, and the migrants themselves. The study includes a review of the state of play of relevant EU asylum and migration legislation and its implementation, an appraisal of the situation in the Mediterranean, and a thorough examination of the external dimension of the EU migration, asylum and border policies, focusing on cooperation with third countries (Turkey, Libya and Niger), incorporating human rights and refugee law considerations and an analysis of the implications of funding allocations under the EU Trust Fund for Africa and the Refugee Facility in Turkey. The main goal is to test the correct application of EU and international law, having regard to increased allegations of human rights violations, undue criminalisation, and complicity of the EU in atrocity crimes committed against migrants at sea, stranded in Libya, or contained in Niger and Turkey. The role of EU agencies (Frontex and EASO) is also assessed alongside the bilateral or multi-lateral initiatives adopted by MS to confront the mounting challenges at the common external borders of the EU, incorporating the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility (Article 80 TFEU) as a horizontal concern.
Study for the Assessment of the EU’s Role in International Maritime Organisations
The sea is inextricably linked with the well-being of Europe. This is illustrated by the presence of two oceans and four seas: the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, the Baltic, the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. Many different types of activities are taking place on Europe's seas and oceans, of which shipping, ports and fisheries remain key maritime activities. Offshore energy (including oil, gas and renewables) and coastal and marine tourism generate massive revenues. The Community's policies that focus on the above areas are as of yet characterised by a sectoral approach. 5 Policies on maritime transport, fisheries, energy, surveillance and policing of the seas, tourism, the marine environment and marine research have been developed separately. This sectoral approach might hamper coordination and at times may lead to inefficiencies, incoherencies and conflicts of use.
Rescue Operations in the Mediterranean Towards a Reliable EU Policy
2019
Search and rescue (SAR) in the central Mediterranean continue painting a disturbing portrait of European disunity on disembarkations and relocations of the rescued passengers. This research paper provides a more optimistic outlook. It argues that, despite the inter-governmental conflicts, which remain unresolved, the EU states have been developing a two-segment policy which has greatly reduced the numbers of irregular maritime arrivals via the central Mediterranean route. The European policy segment has consisted of SAR operations by the individual South European member states, ad-hoc arrangements following disembarkations and a coordinated withdrawal from the Libyan SAR zone. The EU’s Afro-Asian policy segment has been based on the prevention of illegal border crossings and support for Libya and the other North African countries in running their own border control and SAR operations. The EU should be moving towards a policy that balances the traditional rSAR system that primarily guarantees the rights of individuals with a functioning rules-based system that encourages adherence to international norms by all the countries around the Mediterranean. The EU needs to continue addressing the human rights abuses in the Libyan detention centres, without compromising on the imperative that the Libyan coastguard should continue bringing the rescued migrants back to their country.
Managing the maritime borders of Europe: Protection through deterrence and prevention?
Events of the last three years have breathed a new air of urgency in the EU regarding not only the management of irregular migration and asylum but also on the issue of maritime arrivals. Since the Arab Spring, the maritime borders are once more in the spotlight, receiving thousands of irregular arrivals annually coupled with an increase in loss of life at sea. The working paper,discusses recent events and policies implemented by states in the Southern Mediterranean, aiming to achieve on the one hand an efficient border control and on the other a protection of migrants at sea. The paper argues that there is still a long way to go towards balancing prevention and deterrence with protection; even more so, when the focus is on policies and regulations in place that seek to management a multifaceted phenomenon solely from a security perspective.