Timeframe: 2008-2012
Project Manager: Jonas Eriksson and Fredrik Langdal

After early and tentative efforts in the middle of the 1980s the number of initiatives within the framework of the EU’s common migration policy has steadily increased in the last decade, particularly with regard to the Hague Programme. The programme contains among other things a Common European Asylum System, which is to be established by 2010.

The common asylum and migration policy raises several questions that deserve further analysis. The Commission has for instance submitted several far-reaching proposals that lie in the intersection between different policy areas, giving rise to subsidiarity and proportionality concerns. The Commission’s horizontal approach also raises questions regarding the policy’s coherence since several objectives – such as maintaining secure borders, achieving better access to labour supply from third countries and ensuring a high level of protection for migrants – are pursued within the same policy framework. It is also of interest to study the economic and political consequences of common migration management. Lastly, several questions regarding the extra-territorialisation of the EU’s asylum and migration policy, such as support for reception of refugees and the assessment in third countries of the need for protection will be addressed in this project.