The External Dimension of Illegal Immigration

EU Policy and the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,3, Växjö University, language: English, abstract: On the 13th of March 2008 the EU-Council in Brussels decided the formation of a Mediterranean Union, which shall deepen the relations to the south and east Mediterranean states. This Union shall intensify the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership launched in 1995 in Barcelona. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership includes political and security dialogues, the gradual establishment of a free trade area and cultural relations under the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) of the EU. The bilateral and multilateral agreements are mentioning as well topics such as migration and asylum. These subjects are today more than ever important for EU member states. The EU is for many migrants the possibility to escape the bad living conditions in their home countries, which are to a huge degree countries of the south and east Mediterranean. Due to this problem, EU member states decided to manage legal and illegal immigration as well as the flow of refugees on the multilateral level of the EU. Since the Treaty of Amsterdam this area is located in the first pillar of the EU and not longer in the intergovernmental third pillar. As it can be seen in the bilateral and multilateral agreements of the EU with non-EU members there is definitively an EU foreign policy dimension of migration and asylum. Since migration is evidentially a timeless topic and the creation of a Mediterranean Union was decided currently, this paper will analyze the external dimension of illegal immigration in the relations with the Mediterranean partner countries. Which approach is the EU following regarding illegal immigration in general? How far are the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership states included in the management of illegal immigration? Which strategies include the agreements with these countries? Where might be problems of the EU-management of illegal immigration in the cooperation with the countries of the Mediterranean? These shall be the key-questions the paper will answer.