Immigration will remain high on EU’s political agenda. However, the strategic guidelines on freedom, security and justice adopted by the European Council in June 2014 are far from envisioning any fundamental changes in the field of immigration for the upcoming 5 years. This “business as usual” approach does not create a fertile ground for questioning whether the paths undertaken in the past have led to the development of a sound and coherent EU migration policy enabling, among other issues, to avoid people dying at EU’s borders.
In these circumstances, the EPC, supported by several partners (Fondazione Cariplo, King Baudouin Foundation, Notre Europe – Jacques Delors Institute, Foundation for Initiatives and Studies on Multi-Ethnicity), has decided to launch a project seeking to open new avenues of thinking regarding EU’s action in the field of immigration. The project aims to assess whether key EU non-migration policies have an impact or not on the willingness/obligation of third country nationals to engage in migration towards the EU. It will therefore investigate whether EU’s development, trade, agriculture, fisheries and foreign policies generate or not migratory flows towards the EU. While innovative in its setting, the project aims to determine what type of coordination is needed between policies in order to ensure the development of a more comprehensive and sustainable EU migration policy.