Application of the EU policies on migration to the Eastern Neighbourhood and Russian Federation
1. Application of the EU policies on migration to the
Eastern Neighbourhood and Russian Federation
Dr. Oleg Korneev
Jean Monnet Fellow
CARIM-East Project, Migration Policy Centre
RSCAS, European University Institute
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2. Outline
• External dimension of EU migration policies
• Modes of EU migration governance in the
Eastern Neighbourhood
• EU - Russia
• EU – ENP/Eastern partnership countries
• Challenges for the EU
• Discussion: comparing policy tools and their
impact in the region
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3. External dimension of EU migration policies
• “Proximity” challenges (Casier), shifts of “buffer zones” (Potemkina) and the extension of
“remote control” (Zolberg)
• Using external policy mechanisms for responding to internal policy challenges (Lavenex)
• Diversification of actors, including private ones: international organisations, transportation
companies, security/logistics companies, etc. (Guiraudon)
• “Structural foreign policy”: stimulation of changes in internal policies of EU partners, e.g. in
migration policies of Eastern Partnership countries and Russia (Keukeleire)
• Mainstreaming of migration policy goals in EU external relations, BUT also fostering of
functional cooperation in other policy sectors thanks to declared migration policy priorities
• Terminological shifts and issue-linkage in policy transfer: migration management, migration
and development, circular migration, integrated border management, etc. (Geiger and
Pecoud; Betts)
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4. Modes of EU migration governance in
the Eastern Neighbourhood
• Bilateral cooperation – “traditional” policy tools:
PCAs
Readmission agreements
Visa facilitation agreements
• Multilateralism, embededness, trans-regionalism (Alexander Betts) – “innovative”
policy tools
Consultative processes (Budapest, Soderkoping, Prague)
ENP and Eastern Partnership frameworks
GAM (2005, 2007) and GAMM (2011)
Mobility partnerships (mainstreaming mobility)
Migration profiles (mainstreaming development)
Cooperation with other international organisations (mainstreaming security and
development)
Project funding: “EU influence becomes most tangible in form of EU projects set in
time and space” (Wunderlich, 2011)
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5. EU - Russia
Path-dependency in predominantly bilateral cooperation:
• Cooperation on migration issues is included in the PCA (1994)
• Common strategy of the European Union on Russia (1999)
• Russia’s Strategy for Russia-EU relations (1999)
• Joint Action plan on the fight against organised crime (2000)
• Kaliningrad transit solution (2002), start of negotiations on VFA and RA
• ENP (2003) – Russia’s refusal to step in => Common Spaces
• 2005: Road Maps, including the one for FSJ
• 2006: Readmission and VF agreements (issue-linkage)
• 2007: two agreements entered into force
• “The EU main fears of visa-free regime entailing increase of illegal
immigration and criminality do not concern Russian citizens, but rather
human traffickers through the porous Southern borders” (Fernando
Valenzuela, 2010)
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6. EU – Russia (cont)
• 2010: Evaluations of RA after the transitory period – positive both from
the EU and Russia (this covers only Russian citizens):
by November 2010 Russia has received 4715 readmission requests;
more than 3500 requests have been examined;
2214 requests have been accepted as eligible for readmission;
793 persons have been readmitted.
• Visa liberalization stalemate and ambiguous results of visa facilitation
agreement
• 2011: migration dialogue – policy transfer in other sub-fields: legal
migration, asylum process, international subsidiary protection, combatting
trafficking
• Russia’s impact on EU policy tools and their use in the Neighbourhood,
e.g. visa facilitation agreements (see Korneev 2008, 2012; Hernandez I
Sagrera 2011)
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7. EU – ENP/Eastern Partnership
Bilateral tools:
• Readmission agreements: Ukraine (2007), Republic of Moldova (2007), Georgia
(2010), Armenia (2012 – initialled)
• Visa facilitation agreements: Ukraine (2007), Republic of Moldova (2007), Georgia
(2010), Armenia (2012)
• Mobility Partnerships: Republic of Moldova (2008), Georgia (2009), Armenia
(2011)
• Policy transfer efforts in other fields: IBM (Frontex and EUBAM), protection, long-
term residents, highly skilled, etc.
Key issue: Visa Liberalisation (see MPC report for MD and UA)
Regional approach (examples)
• SIREADA (targeting readmission capacities, IOM)
• Prague process (multiple priorities, ICMPD)
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8. Challenges for the EU
• Implementation of agreements: reception of policies and technical issues (as in
EU-Russia RA case)
• The need to account for diversity in the Neighbourhood
• Promotion of regionalism
• Discrepancies in migration policy goals and tools, e.g. promoting RA in countries
where protection standards are low and re-integration capacities are virtually
absent
“Domestic actors have other choices in responding to Europeanisation than
endorsing or resisting EU induced reforms; they can instrumentalise EU policies
and institutions to advance their own interests, decoupling them from their
normative contents… ” (Tanja A. Börzel & Yasemin Pamuk (2012): Pathologies of
Europeanisation: Fighting Corruption in the Southern Caucasus, West European
Politics, 35:1, P.80).
• Problems of co-ordination with other policy transfer actors, donors and
implementing partners in the region
• Actual policy transfer within and beyond the Eastern Neighbourhood?
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