The Power of Legal Norms in the EU's External Border Control

171

101

In 2015/16, Europe faced the largest inflow of refugees since World War II. This inflow highlighted systemic deficiencies in EU asylum co-operation which provoked a state of crisis. Together with the Eurozone crisis, this crisis has the potential to seriously damage the overall project of EU integration. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a first systematic assessment of the crisis, applying and further developing key theoretical approaches to the sequence of events. In empirical terms, we advance original empirical evidence in order to deepen our understanding of the crisis and how it has been managed. In theoretical terms, we seek to (re)assess the usefulness and limitations of some important theoretical perspectives to European integration at a critical juncture of the EU's history. After presenting the sequence of events and assessing the EU's crisis response, the introduction will summarize our main findings and present avenues for further research.

Section: Contribution Of This Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

EU Refugee Policies and Politics in Times of Crisis: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Niemann

Zaun

2017

171

101

“…Acting within the EU's multilevel structures implies that national governments may lose considerable powers to supranational actors and are no longer in control of the decision-making process (Marks et al, 1996). The increased use of majority voting and other supranational dynamics may produce policy outputs that do not necessarily reflect the interests of all Member States (Kaunert and Léonard, 2012;Niemann, 2008;Slominski, 2013;Zaun, 2016). The EU may be seen as a 'liberal constraint' for Member States in their treatment of migrants (Bonjour et al, 2017).…”

Section: European and National Constraints For Member States' Actionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do Member States Return Unwanted Migrants? The Strategic (non‐)use of ‘Europe’ during the Migration Crisis

Slominski

Trauner

2017

Self Cite

This article analyzes how Member States have used the opportunities and avoided the constraints of the EU's multilevel governance architecture to return unwanted migrants. Drawing on sociological approaches to the EU and a broad understanding of return policies, we investigate the ways in which the northern Member States, notably Germany and Austria, have increasingly relied upon the EU's operational and financial resources to achieve their goal of pursuing a bold return policy. A key 'usage' of Europe has been the pooling of political and financial power to externalize and informalize its return policy. At the same time, the northern Member States' deliberate -yet widely under-researched -'non-use' of Europe, such as using and maximizing national leeway, has been an equally important strategy to reduce migratory pressure and achieve higher return rates.

“…At the same time, we acknowledge that EU policy‐makers have to pursue their preferences in an increasingly legalized environment, which affects their strategies and collective interaction outcomes (Slominski, ). Though legalization does not deprive EU institutions of their political agency, it profoundly shapes the way their agency is exercised.…”

Section: Legalization and Eu Foreign Policy‐makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 This approach is based on a broad understanding of law, which enables us to take into account not only legally binding yet rather vague rules, but also the abundance of legally non-binding rules (soft law) and their interaction with one another, which can be of considerable political and legal relevance (Senden, 2004;Snyder, 1993). 5 At the same time, we acknowledge that EU policy-makers have to pursue their preferences in an increasingly legalized environment, which affects their strategies and collective interaction outcomes (Slominski, 2013). Though legalization does not deprive EU institutions of their political agency, it profoundly shapes the way their agency is exercised.…”

Section: Legalization and Eu Foreign Policy-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Law in EU Foreign Policy‐making: Legal Integrity, Legal Spillover, and the EU Policy of Differentiation towards Israel

Müller

Slominski

2016

Self Cite

Little systematic effort has been made to examine the role of law and its implications for EU foreign policy‐making. Addressing this research gap, we identify key legal dynamics that operate in supranational policies, but have increasingly led to legal ‘spillovers’, both institutionally and discursively, into the Common Foreign and Security Policy. We illustrate the relevance of these dynamics for the case of EU–Israeli relations. Since the late 1990s, legal inconsistencies in EU–Israeli co‐operation have been addressed by the Commission via soft law, by various MEPs via parliamentary questions, and by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Simultaneously, external actors like NGOs and corporations have used the EU's legal infrastructure to confront the EU with the fact that its de facto relations have not lived up its de jure position. Over time and also as a consequence of the Lisbon Treaty, even the Council found it difficult to ignore non‐compliance with its own legal position.