EU mobility partnerships: A model of policy coordination?

European Journal of Migration and Law

Volumn 11, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 327-345

  Parkes, Roderick ^a  

^a GERMAN INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL AND SECURITY AFFAIRS   (Germany)

Author keywords

Comprehensive approach; European Neighbourhood Policy; Illegal immigration; Mobility

Indexed keywords

EID: 70450265330     PISSN: 1388364X     EISSN: 15718166     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/138836409X12501577630623     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the conference 'A New Partnership for the Eastern Neighbours: German and Polish Perspectives', Berlin, 24-25 November 2008 and is available from the website of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik under the title: Mobility Partnerships: Valuable Addition to the ENP Repertoire?. The present article expands the focus of analysis beyond the relationship between the Partnerships and ENP, and has benefited from subsequent interviews and expert comments for which the author expresses his gratitude. I am also most grateful to the anonymous reviewer of this article.
2. Council of the European Union (2008), Joint Declaration on a Mobility Partnership between the Euro pean Union and the Republic of Cape Verde, 9460/08 ADD 2, 21 May 2008.
3. For useful analysis of this and other migration routes from Africa to the EU: Haas, Hein de, Irregular Migration from West Africa to the Maghreb and the European Union: An Overview of Recent Trends, Paper 32, prepared for the IOM, 2008;
4. Moppes, David van, The African migration movement: routes to Europe, Working papers Migration and Development series, Report No. 5, Radboud University 2006.
5. Council of the European Union (2008), Joint Declaration on the Signature of a Mobility Partnership between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova, 9460/08 ADD 1, 21st May 2008. On facilitated illegal immigration via this route, see for example: Europol, 'Facilitated illegal immigration into the European Union', Factsheet, 2008, http://www.europol.europa.eu/publications/ Serious-Crime-Over-views/Facilitated-illegal-immigration-2008.pdf.
6. On this co-opting see: Lavenex, Sandra, 'Shifting Up and Out: the Foreign Policy of European Immigration Control', West European Politics, 29(2), 2006, pp. 329-350.
7. The use of the term 'roadmap' may risk imputing too high a degree of clarity and planning in these agendas. All three of these agendas are fluid and still being formulated.
8. Confidential interview, July 2009. It would also be interesting to examine the compatibility of the Partnerships with other core migration-policy agendas such as the desire to create a common European migration policy. Practitioners note, for example, that the Mobility Partnerships diminish the pressure for a common approach to legal migration. This is because they permit EU Member States to opt into the Partnerships as they see fit, rather than demanding an EU-wide approach to migration relations with the chosen third country.
9. It should be acknowledged that the Mobility Partnership with Moldova is not necessarily representa tive of other Mobility Partnerships, either existent or putative: those actors involved in the conception of the first round of Partnerships state that it was far more difficult to formulate the development policy- related aspects of the Partnership with Moldova than it was with Cape Verde. A number of initiatives with Moldova foundered on that country's disinclination to think of itself as a 'developing state'. Many of the eastern EU Member States pushing for the Moldovan Partnership have less experience of development policy than their partners to the South.
10. See: Parkes, Roderick, 'Asylum and Immigration Policy: Efficient Realisation of a Modest Agenda', in: Daniela Kietz and Volker Perthes (eds.), The Potential of the Council Presidency: An Analysis of Germany's Chairmanship of the EU, 2007, Research Paper 2008/1, pp. 49-55.
11. In cases where many Member States would like to be involved in a certain project with the chosen third country (the project of border management for example), the Commission seeks to bundle the their activities and avoid overlap. Where the third country would like to see the EU make greater concessions (the issue of its nationals' social security benefits was a particular concern for the Moldovan government), the Commission seeks to cajole the Member States to take action.
12. European Council, Presidency Conclusions, Brussels, 17th July 2008, http://www.consilium.eu ropa. eu/ueDocs/cms-Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/101346. pdf. The Council's aspiration to ex tend the scheme to Senegal appears to have been scuppered by the resistance of the Senegalese.
13. For a flavour of this: Afrolnews, 'EU, Senegal to negotiate mobility agreement', 17th June 2008, http://www.afrol.com/articles/29411.
14. Analysis of the Preamble to the Mobility Partnership with Moldova, for example, suggests the follow ing goals: to combat irregular migration; to take account of social, economic and foreign policy consid erations; and to act within the framework of the ENP. See: Council of the European Union (2008), 9460/08 ADD 1. The Mobility Partnership with Cape Verde lists similar goals, the major difference being that the partnership is to work within the framework of the Cotonou Agreement rather than ENP. See: Council of the European Union (2008), 9460/08 ADD 2.
15. This was the logic of the 'compensatory measures' introduced to off set the removal of borders between the Member States: Guiraudon, Virginie, 'European Integration and Migration Policy: Vertical Policy- making as Venue Shopping', Journal of Common Market Studies, 38(2) 2000, pp. 251-271.
16. European Commission, Circular Migration and Mobility Partnerships between the European Union and Third Countries, Memo 07/197, 2007.
17. For analysis: Angenendt Steffen and Roderick Parkes, EU Perspectives on Legal Migration and Asylum, TGAE Briefing, May 2008, http://www.energie-cites. eu/IMG/pdf/think-glo bal-act-european-table-of-contents.pdf.
18. On this issue: Pop, Adrian, 'European Union initiatives in tackling migration and organized crime at its new eastern border', Romanian Journal of European Aff airs, 8/1, 2008, pp. 45-59.
19. See also the work of the 'Friendly EU Border' project: http://www.batory.org.pl/english/intl/monitor.htm.
20. Of course, ENP also comprises the goal of restricting certain forms of movement including illegal immigration: Wich-mann, Nicole, The Intersection between Justice and Home Aff airs and the European Neighbourhood Policy: Taking Stock of the Logic, Objectives and Practices, CEPS Working Document 2007, http://shop.ceps.eu/ BookDetail.php?item-id=1546.
21. European Commission, 'A Strong European Neighbourhood Policy', Communication from the Com mission, COM(2007) 774 final, http://ec.europa.eu/ world/enp/pdf/com07-774-en.pdf.
22. Global Commission on International Migration, Migration in an Interconnected World: New Directions for Action, Geneva: International Organization for Migration 2005;
23. World Migration 2005: Costs and Benefits of International Migration, Geneva 2005.
24. For earlier analysis: Angenendt, Steffen, Circular Migration: A Sustainable Concept for Migration Policy?, SWP Comments 2007/11, http://www.swp-berlin.org/en/common/get-document.php?as set-id=4058.
25. For useful critical analysis of these ideas: Vertovec, Steve, Circular Migration: the way forward in global policy?, International Migration Institute Working Paper 2007/4, http://www.imi.ox.ac.uk/pdfs/wp4- circular-migration- policy.pdf.
26. European Commission, A Strong European Neighbourhood Policy, Communication from the Com munication, COM(2007) 774 final, http://ec.europa.eu/ world/enp/pdf/com07-774-en.pdf.
27. Martin, Philip and Edward Taylor, 'The anatomy of a migration hump', in: Edward Taylor (ed.), Development Strategy, Employment, and Migration: Insights from Models, Paris: OECD Development Centre 1996, pp. 43-62.
28. For discussion in a different context: Bakewell, Oliver, Keeping them in their place: the ambivalent relationship between development and migration in Africa, IMI Working Paper 8, 2007, http://www.imi. ox.ac.uk/pdfs/WP8%20- %20Migration%20and%20Development%20-%20OB.pdf.
29. The redrawing of the EU's borders had the potential to disrupt established relations between the Union's new members and their neighbours.
30. Under the terms of the Readmission Agreement that Moldova has signed with the EU - a precondi tion if it was to benefit from ENP - Moldova has undertaken to accept nationals of other countries, as well as stateless persons, irregularly in the EU who entered illegally through Moldova or were in posses sion of a Moldovan resident permit or visa at time of entry. See Article 3 of the Council Decision concern ing the signing of the Agreement between the European Community and the Republic of Moldova on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation (http://register.consili um.europa.eu/pdf/ en/07/st12/st12752.en07.pdf). On the problems associated with this commitment: Pop 2008, p. 58.
31. For useful analysis: International Crisis Group, Moldova's Uncertain Future, Europe Report 175, 2006, www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id= 4340&l=1;
32. Michael, Bryane and Mariya Polner, Fighting Corruption on the Transnistrian Border: Lessons from Failed and Successful Anti-Corruption Programmes, American University of Paris Working Paper No. 49, 2007.
33. European Council (1999) European Commission (2001), Communication on a Common Policy on Illegal Immigration, Communication, COM(2001)672 final, http://www.statewatch.org/news/2001/ nov/illimm672.pdf;
34. European Council, Presidency Conclusions on a Comprehensive Migration Policy, 14th-15th December 2006 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms-Data/ docs/press Data/en/ ec/92202.pdf;
35. European Commission, A Comprehensive European Migration Policy, Memo, 14th May 2007, http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/07/ 188#fn1.
36. On the presentation of circular migration as a panacea: Kau, Marcel, Circular Migration - A Model from the Past or a Feasible Instrument for the Future, paper presented at the conference on 'Economically Motivated Migration - A Challenge for Western Societies', Charlottesville, 23rd-24th May 2008.
37. For a definitive analysis of this repertoire of policy tools: Guiraudon, Virginie, 'European Integration and Migration Policy: Vertical Policy-making as Venue Shopping', Journal of Common Market Studies, 38(2), 2000, pp. 251-271.
38. For interesting discussion of this in the context of Mobility Partnerships: Chou, Meng-Hsuan, 'The European Union and the Fight Against Human Tr afficking: Comprehensive or Contradictory?' St Anthony's International Review 4(1), 2008, pp. 76-95, http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/ext/stair/4-1/chou.pdf.
39. The term 'compliance' is used here for simplicity's sake. Strictly speaking, however, some of the mechanisms it employs do not require 'compliance' with EU demands. Instead, signatory states are conceived as working towards the realisation of common goals. For a useful analysis of the mechanisms which ENP uses for effecting change: Tocci, Nathalie, 'Does the ENP respond to the EU's post- enlargement challenges?', International Spectator, 1/2005, pp. 21-32, http://www.weltpolitik.net/attachment/ 0644a930ba1074b5cca2acd4809cbed5/ 9f6341e115fd7e0cf94f53fbb98e465f/2005-1-esterni-Tocci.pdf.
40. Lippert, Barbara, 'Beefing up the ENP: Towards a Modernisation and Stability Partnership', Interna tional Spectator, 4/2006, pp. 85-100.
41. For example: Missiroli, Antonio, The ENP Three Years On: Where From? Where Next?, IDDRI Paper 3/2007, http://www.iddri.org/Publications/Collections/ Idees-pour-le-debat/id-0703-missiroli-bei-ec- enp1.pdf.
42. For example, Council of the EU, Council Conclusions on European Neighbourhood Policy, External Relations Council, Brussels, 18th February 2008, http://www.con silium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms-Data/ docs/pressData/en/gena/98790. pdf.
43. European Commission, European Neighbourhood Policy: Strategy Paper, Communication, COM(2004) 373 final, http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/pdf/strategy/ strategy-paper-en.pdf.
44. On this issue: Tovias, Alfred, Is the European Neighbourhood Policy Directed at Its Mediterranean Part ners Coherent?, paper prepared for the conference 'The Study of the European Neighbourhood Policy: Methodological, Theoretical and Empirical Challenges', 25th-26th October 2007, Nottingham, http:// www.nottingham.ac.uk/shared/shared-icmcr/Docs/Tovias.pdf.
45. Eff orts to draw up best practice on the negotiation of such agreements have, for example, stressed the need for the EU to offer equivalent terms for equivalent undertakings: Boratynski, Jakub et al., How to
46. make a difference? EU-Ukrainian negotiations on facilitation of visa regime, Stefan Batory Foundation 2005, http://www.batory.org.pl/doc/how-to-make- a-difference.pdf.
47. There are, however, considerable disparities between the two agreements. The Cape Verdean agree menThis an altogether more modest aff air than the Moldovan.
48. European Commission, EU deepens ties with its neighbours and supports their reforms, IP/08/509, 3rd April 2008.
49. Confidential interview, July 2009.
50. Missiroli 2007.
51. Lang, Kai-Olaf, 'The Profile of the German Presidency in the ENP: Regulated Stimulation and Com plex Bargaining' in: Daniela Kietz and Volker Perthes (eds.), The Potential of the Council Presidency, SWP Research Paper 2008/1, pp. 64-70.
52. European Commission, The Global Approach to Migration one year on: Towards a comprehensive Euro pean migration policy, Communication, COM(2006)735 final, http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Lex UriServ/ LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2006:0735: FIN:EN:PDF.
53. NGOs and commentators have been alive to this possibility: Caritas Europa et al., Comments on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions 'Migration and Development: Some concrete orientations', COM (2005) 390 final', Comments 2006, http://www.caritas-europa. org/module/FileLib/ 060524CommentsMigDev.pdf.