European Integration and the Governance of Migration

Abstract

This article traces the development of EU governance of migration, with an emphasis upon key moments of institutional reform such as the creation of the pillar of Justice and Home Affairs within 1992’s Treaty on European Union. The article identifies three periods with different governance patterns since the Maastricht Treaty, with increasing involvement of institutions such as the Court of Justice and the European Parliament. Together with the increased relevance of EU agencies such as Frontex, this has produced a style of governance that is neither predominantly intergovernmental nor supranational, though multilevel and experimental governance are not prominent either. The article also examines what modes of governance are present within the primary migration policy domains. Member states still enjoy considerable discretion in labour migration and family reunion, and the EU institutions have respected this. However, there has been greater supranational involvement in the areas of irregular migration and specifically asylum, whether through the involvement of EU agencies, or through legislation and court rulings that genuinely oblige countries to change their domestic rules. Institutional changes have continued to empower the Commission, with the potential for substantially greater participation and authority for the EU institutions.

The EU Governance System of External Relations

“…More precisely, the creation of new mechanisms of security cooperation have paved the way to develop a horizontal nexus, in which the new institutional setting facilitates horizontal policy cooperation among the member states in order to implement EU policy concepts at the national level without relinquishing sovereignty or transferring power to the EU level (Tömmel 2016). This parallels the horizontal relations between countries in the area of Justice and Home Affairs (Caviedes 2016) or citizenship (Maas 2016). As part of a new setting to promote a horizontal nexus, the Nice European Council in 2000 approved the creation of three new permanent political and military bodies: the Political and Security Committee (PSC) is the body of the Council that deals with crisis situations and examines all the options that might be considered as the Union's response within the single institutional framework; the European Union Military Committee (EUMC) is the highest military body established within the Council and is composed of the Chiefs of Defence represented by their military representatives in Brussels; and the European Union Military Staff provides military expertise and support to the ESDP, including the conduct of EU-led military crisis operations (Missiroli and Quille 2004) While the EU has finally created specific governance mechanisms in the EU military sector in order to initiate a process of military convergence, some tangible steps have been taken with regard to military-civilian operations, which are the most important outcomes in providing effective security cooperation in cases of crisis.…”