The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Sara Poli, Associate - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)

Sara Poli, Associate Professor of EU Law (University of Pisa, Italy; email: Sara.Poli@unipi.it) Summer School on Migration, European University Institute, 28 June 2017

Topics of the lecture

• Part I. The ENP: its principles and evolution

(2003-2017) – Questions based on the readings

• Part II. ENP countries and the cooperation on

migration with the EU

• prof. Sara Poli

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Part I The ENP: its principles and evolution

• prof. Sara Poli

Part I: The ENP, its principles and evolution

• Countries covered
• Objectives of the ENP
• Legal Instruments, Means and Principles
• Evolution of the ENP in 2011
• Assessment of the cooperation with ENP

partners

• The revision of the ENP in 2015
• The EU-Ukraine agreement
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Questions (group I)

• Which countries are covered by the ENP?
• What are the objectives of the EU in the context
• f the ENP?
• What does the EU offer to ENP countries in

exchange of cooperation?

• What are the legal instruments and the means

used by the EU to achieve the objectives of the ENP?

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Questions (group II)

• On the basis of which principles does the EU

cooperate with its neighbours? – Differentiation – Conditionality – Equal partnership

• How did the ENP evolve?

– 2011 (Arab Spring): market, money and mobility

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Assessment of the cooperation with ENP partners

• Security, stability and prosperity in 2015? Did ENP countries

undertake a process of reform?

• There is variable geometry in the EU-ENP countries relations;
• The EU has acted as a catalyser of changes in the Eastern

associated neighbours (Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia having an association agreement with the EU):

• political association and economic integration but with no clear

membership perspective; very wide scope of the agreements;

• the «deep» and «comprehensive» free trade area; principle of

market access conditionality;

• Asymmetric form of cooperation between the EU and the

associated countries (EU-led form of trade liberalization);

• Very high costs of implementation for Ukraine.
• Other Eastern neighbours are interested in a lower level of

cooperation with the EU (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia)

• Southern neighbours: Tunisia and Morocco (countries in transition)
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Questions (group III)

• The implementation deficits of the ENP?
• Causes:

– Presumption that there could be «common values» – Presumption that ENP countries could reform their domestic system on the basis of «shared values» – Presumption that the incentives to change were sufficient

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New approach of the ENP as reviewed (2015)

• The EU will continue to support countries that carry out

reforms in the fields of good governance, democracy, the rule of law and human rights

• Greater focus on security and stability rather than on

prosperity;

• Greater focus and partners’ needs, if compatible with EU

interests;

• Greater respect of the principle of ownership

– Latest report on the review of the ENP: JOIN(2017) 18 final

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Part II Cooperation in the area of migration

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Major migration routes Source: European Parliamentary Research Service, 2015

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ENP countries and the migration challenges posed by them

• Irregular migration:

– Country of origin: Morocco, Libya, – Countries of transit: Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon – Two categories of migrants: economic migrants and persons qualifying for asylum or other forms of international protection

• Legal migration: Morocco and Ukraine
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Cooperation in the area of migration between the EU and ENP countries

• Common

interest between the EU and neighbours to fight illegal immigration, trafficking,

• rganised crime or terrorist networks (COM

(2003) 104)

• Member States counter irregular migration

through bilateral agreements

• As of 2005 the EC (later the EU) also concludes

re-admission agreements to fight illegal immigration

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Re-admission agreements

• A State may request the partner country to

readmit to its territory all persons who do not, or who no longer, fulfil the conditions in force for entry to or stay on the territory of the requesting State, provided that they are nationals of the requested State

• Third country nationals having a different

nationality of the requested State but leaving from the requested State?

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The difficulties of concluding readmission agreements (RAs)

• It is not attractive for a third country to conclude

a readmission agreement (RA)

• The link between readmission agreements and

visa facilitation agreements (VFA) in the EU practice; negotiation of the two agreements is carried out in parallel, where possible

– Ukraine readmission agreement and visa facilitation agreement (2007)

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Mobility partnerships

• Launched in 2006-2007
• Parties: a ENP partner, the MS and the EU
• Legal Nature: political declarations
• Content (very flexible): include commitments to

facilitate legal migration, foster well-managed mobility, while preventing and combating illegal immigration and trafficking in and smuggling of human beings, in accordance with international

• bligations relating to refugee protection and,

more broadly, human rights

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Global Approach to Migration

• In 2005 the Council launches the Global

Approach to Migration (GAMM)

• ‘Migrant-centred’ approach
• Not only cooperation on readmission but

also opportunities for legal migration

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Possible content of MPs as far as legal

• pportunities of migration are concerned
• Labour quotas reserved for the nationals of the third

country in question

• practical instruments to help match job offers in the

Member State in question with job seekers in the third country concerned

• facilitation of circular migration
• measures designed to improve and/or ease the

procedures for issuing short stay visas to nationals of the third country

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Implementation: ENP partners with MPs

• First

wave

• f

MPs with Eastern neighbours:

– Moldova (2008); Georgia (2009); Armenia (2011)

• Second wave of MPs with Southern

neighbours:

– Morocco (2014); Jordan (2013); Tunisia (2014)

• In 2016 a MP was signed with Belarus
• Libya: bilateral agreement with Italy but no EU-

wide agreement

• Egypt has shown no interest
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Follow-up to MPs (Eastern neighbours)

• Visa facilitation agreements and re-admission

agreements were concluded with Eastern countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova; negotiation for both agreements is open with Belarus)

• Visa-facilitation agreements facilitate the issuance of

short-stay visas (i.e. no more than 90 days (within a period of 180 days) and multiple-entry visas; ensuring cheaper less bureaucratic procedures for certain categories of persons (e.g. family members, students, business people, journalists, scientists, etc..)

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Follow-up to MPs (Southern neighbours)

• Neither a visa facilitation agreement, nor a readmission

agreement were concluded with Southern neighbours as

• f 2017

However,

• the negotiation for a visa facilitation agreement with

Morocco was open in 2015 and with Tunisia in 2016

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Further steps: visa liberalization action plans with Eastern neighbours

• Ukraine (2010), Moldova (2011), Georgia (2013)
• Aim: to set up a visa-free regime for selected

categories of persons, subject to the fulfilment of benchmarks monitored by the EU;

• The lifting of the visa is possible (but it is not

automatic) if these countries fulfil the benchmarks

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EU Visa-free agreements with Moldova (2014), Georgia (2017) and Ukraine (2017)

• Citizens of these countries with biometric

passports travelling to the EU (and to Schengen-associated countries) for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, for tourism, to visit relatives or friends, or for business purposes, but not to work are exempt from the obligation to have a visa (except in UK, Ireland and Denmark)

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Mobility-related provisions of the association agreement with Ukraine (2014)

• Art. 17: Ukrainians workers have the right not

be discriminated on the basis of nationality with respect to the working conditions compared to EU nationals;

• Non-discrimination on social security is not

included in the Treaty;

• Spouses and children of legally employed do

not have the right not be discriminated on the basis of their nationality

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Mobility-related provisions of the association agreement with Georgia (2014) and Moldova (2014)

• These agreements do not contain provisions

similar to those of Ukraine with respect the treatment of workers

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MPs in practice

MPs are affected by a number of weaknesses:

– The EU cannot impose on Member States to open-up their job market to third country nationals; it lacks competence to do so. – MPs are signed by some Member States but not by all; – mild commitment to facilitate legal migration: (MS commit to inform potential migrants on opportunities for legal migration; establish schemes for mutual recognition; opportunities for selected categories of persons)

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Priorities for the future

• The EU is very much oriented on containing movements of

people from ENP countries and on improving their capacity to manage migration movements.

• In the short term: to complete the compacts with Jordan and

Lebanon, to explore with Tunisia how best to take EU-Tunisia cooperation to the next level and to launch and agree compacts with Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali and Ethiopia (COM (2016) 385

• n establishing a new Partnership Framework with third

countries under the European Agenda on Migration)

• Having flows from the Eastern Mediterranean routes diminished

in 2016, in order to tackle the irregular migration from the central Mediterranean route, the EU stands ready to support the Libyan Government of National Accord in its efforts to manage irregular migration flows.

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