Documentos CIDOB Migraciones; 16

Ever since the European Council meeting in Tampere, cooperation with third countries has been one of the key elements in Europe's immigration policy. The EU Member States reached the conclusion that in order to face national challenges more effectively, it was vitally important to create mechanisms for close collaboration with third countries, based on common values of shared responsibility and solidarity. Since then, the efforts made have been channelled toward the development of cooperation with countries of origin and of immigration transit, in order to manage these human flows more effectively.

The CIDOB Document Migrations 16 pays particular attention to the exterior links in Europe's immigration policy. Though at first the European states approached immigration management by only dealing with their respective domestic situations, they soon realized that in order to respond to the phenomenon, they would have to bring in an exhaustive, coherent series of measures, both in the internal sphere of each country and in its exterior dimension. As the author points out, the Member States have arrived at the conclusion that they cannot deal with the phenomenon of migration individually; instead, they have to consider migration cooperation - both between Member States and between these and third countries - as well as the links between migration policies and cooperation with development.

The main conclusion reached by the author is that in today's world, the distinction between the internal and external management of immigration has become obsolete. In order to manage this phenomenon effectively, a true European common immigration policy is required, together with a coordinated approach in Europe’s policy on cooperation with development. To achieve this, new instruments must be developed, and larger budgets be allocated to them, with the aim of making the new European policy more effective. The passing of the Lisbon Treaty could push forward this process and encourage progress in a new field of cooperation which, the author claims, has become a challenge that the EU has to deal with.

ISSN: 1697-7734 (print edition)
ISSN: 1697-8145 (online edition)

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