Conflict, Mobility and Migration Challenges at the Core of the Reviewed European Neighbourhood Policy: Tackling New Realities Through Old Means?
Conceived to foster peace, stability and prosperity at the EU’s vicinity, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was reviewed for the last time at a moment in which the EU finds itself surrounded by a ring of crises and conflicts both at its eastern and southern neighbourhoods. On one hand, conflict realities in the EU’s southern neighbourhood have, since the Arab Spring, undergone into a substantial change that has not been witnessed since colonialism. On the other hand, the current conflicts in the Eastern neighbourhood, in particular with the recent escalation of the conflict in Nagorno Karabhk, and the fragile democracy of Moldova, for example, show in clear terms the deep challenges that the EU faces also in its Eastern border. Among these challenges, the review of the ENP was certainly undertaken in the context of what is widely perceived as a European migration crisis whose effects are still today at the core of the relations of the EU with its neighbours. The dramatic increase of refugees fleeing armed conflicts in the immediate neighbourhood of the EU put migration concerns at the core of the ENP. Indeed, as clearly described in the ENP review joint communication, migration issues, in particular “safe and legal mobility” and “tackling irregular migration, human trafficking and smuggling” are among the priorities of the new ENP. This paper seeks to explore the review of the ENP in light with the current context and challenges of the EU’s neighbourhood, in particular taking into account both the migratory and security realities which are undoubtedly interconnected, looking at particular issues:
– assessing the importance of the new migration reality in light of the reviewed ENP, taking into account, in particular, the migration-security nexus and its implication for the EU’s immediate neighbours.
– analysing the revision of the ENP, both in its narrative, rationale and instruments, in dealing with the new migration challenges;
– analyse both instruments and policies at the core of the ENP tackling migration issues, in particular the European Agenda for Migration, assessing EU’s response to the migratory crisis.
Vasco Batista . vasco.batista@coleurope.eu