Series:CEPS Papers in LIBERTY and SECURITY in Europe

Between Anarchy and Censorship. Public discourse and the duties of social media

Between Anarchy and Censorship. Public discourse and the duties of social media

Author(s): Judit Bayer / Language(s): English

Keywords: Anarchy and Censorship; Public discourse; social media; Communication; mass media;

Social media platforms have become powerful enough to cause perceptible effects in societies on a global scale. They facilitate public discussion, and they work with excessive amounts of personal data – both activities affecting human rights and the rule of law. This specific service requires attention from the regulator: according to this paper, a new legal category should be created with clear definitions, and a firm delineation of platforms’ rights and responsibilities. Social media companies should not become responsible for third-party content, as this would lead to over-censorship, but they should have the obligation to create and maintain safe and secure platforms, on which human rights and the rule of law are respected.

№48 Two Boats in the Mediterranean and their Unfortunate Encounters with Europe’s Policies towards People on the Move

№48 Two Boats in the Mediterranean and their Unfortunate Encounters with Europe’s Policies towards People on the Move

Author(s): Leonhard Den Hertog / Language(s): English

Keywords: Europe’s Policies towards People on the Move; migratory flows;

This paper examines two recent events in which people on the move making their way from Libya to Europe across the Mediterranean were either abandoned to die at sea or ‘pushed back’ (Hirsi case). It argues that these two cases are not incidental or isolated but rather part of a broader situation of concern in the Mediterranean. The paper highlights this situation and also connects it to Europe’s response to migratory flows during the Arab Spring. On thebasis of independent reports, case law and first-hand accounts, it attributes these tragedies to two fundamental structural deficiencies in Europe’s approach to people on the move in the Mediterranean: 1) a general lack of accountability, among the most salient of which are thelack of legal clarity for SAR (search & rescue) and disembarkation obligations as well as alack of monitoring of what actually happens in the Mediterranean and 2) a lack of solidarity amongst European states as well as across the Mediterranean. The paper then goes on to propose recommendations to correct those cross-cutting deficiencies.

№50 Trends and Gaps in the Academic Literature on EU Labour Migration Policies

№50 Trends and Gaps in the Academic Literature on EU Labour Migration Policies

Author(s): Marie De Somer / Language(s): English

Keywords: EU Labour Migration Policies; labour market inclusion; protection of rights;

This paper provides an overview of the ‘state of the art’ in the academic literature on EU labour migration policies. It forms part of the research agenda of Work Package 18 of the NEUJOBS project, which aims at reviewing legislation and practices regarding the labour market inclusionand protection of rights of different categories of foreign workers in European labour markets. Accordingly, particular attention is paid to the works of scholars who evaluate the status of rights of third-country national workers in relation to labour market access, employment security, social integration, etc., in European legislation on labour immigration. More specifically, the review has selected those scholarly works that focus specifically on analysingthe manner in which policy-makers have addressed the granting of rights to non-EU migrant workers, and the manner in which policy agendas – through the relevant political and institutional dynamics – have found their translation in the legislation adopted.

№67 The US Labour Immigration Scheme – All about being attractive? EU Perceptions and Stakeholders’ Perspectives Reviewed

№67 The US Labour Immigration Scheme – All about being attractive? EU Perceptions and Stakeholders’ Perspectives Reviewed

Author(s): Katharina Eisele / Language(s): English

Keywords: US Labour Immigration Scheme; EU Perceptions and Stakeholders’ Perspectives; qualified immigrant workers;

Labour immigration schemes that effectively attract qualified immigrant workers are a policy priority for many governments. But what are ‘attractive’ labour immigration schemes and policies? To whom are (or should) such policies (be) attractive? In Europe, the US is often portrayed as one of the most ‘attractive’ countries of immigration – if not the most ‘attractive’. This paper aims to analyse and provide a better understanding of the elements of the US immigration system that are supposedly attractive to foreign workers, by examining key features of the current and prospective US labour immigration rules. The paper finds that ‘attractiveness’ in this policy context is a highly malleable and flexible concept: What might be ‘attractive’ to one key stakeholder might not be to another.

№87 EU-Morocco Cooperation on Readmission, Borders and Protection: A model to follow?

№87 EU-Morocco Cooperation on Readmission, Borders and Protection: A model to follow?

Author(s): Sergio Carrera,Jean-Pierre Cassarino,Nora El Qadim,Mehdi Lahlou,Leonhard Den Hertog / Language(s): Albanian,English

Keywords: EU-Morocco cooperation; Borders and protection; Refugee crisis;

Greater cooperation with third countries is one of the EU’s core responses to the refugee crisis. This cooperation is focused on the read mission of individuals irregularly staying in the EU, on border surveillance and control, and on the reception of refugees in third countries. The EU has attempted to co-opt Turkey and African countries into these priorities, using funding and specific mobility channels as incentives. This paper poses the question of what kind of cooperation the EU should pursue with third countries. As the current approaches are not new, we present the lessons from the EU’s long cooperation with Morocco to inform the current debate. We find that, first, the difficult negotiations on an EU Readmission Agreement with Morocco show that more funding or ‘incentives’ cannot guarantee such an agreement, let alone its implementation. Second, we highlight the challenges of the partly EU-funded and Frontex-coordinated cooperation on borders between Spain and Morocco, which hampers the capacity of third countries to respect migrants’ rights and challenges the obligations of EU member states under European and international law. Third, as EU cooperation with Turkey and Africa now aims to ‘stem’ the flow of asylum-seekers, the capacity of third countries to offer reception and protection to asylum-seekers is crucial. We conclude that Morocco has limited capacities in this regard, which raises the question of whether third countries can be assumed to be able to offer such reception and protection.

№95 Money Talks. Mapping the funding for EU external migration policy

№95 Money Talks. Mapping the funding for EU external migration policy

Author(s): Leonhard Den Hertog / Language(s): English

Keywords: EU external migration policy; Borders; Asylum: EU governance; EU funding;

This paper examines the role of funding in the EU’s external policies on migration, borders and asylum. Academic analysis has looked extensively into the political and legal resources of the EU in this area,but surprisingly little attention has been paid to the role of funding in the governance of this cooperation with third countries. The objective of this paper is first to understand what EU funds are involved and which actors are setting priorities for funding in the field of migration, borders and asylum. This is a highly technical field of EU governance, characterised by complex political and legal dynamics. The funding landscape is fragmented and incoherent, with limited coordination, but this incoherence can be understood in light of the broader political, sociological and institutional struggles that come to the fore in the setting of priorities for funding. This paper argues that a certain degree of incoherence is an inevitable characteristic of EU governance in this field. The bigger issue is the challenge posed to accountability by this EU funding.

№70 Statistics on Loss of Nationality in the EU

№70 Statistics on Loss of Nationality in the EU

Author(s): Maarten Peter Vink,Ngo Chun Luk / Language(s): English

Keywords: Nationality; EU; ILEC; loss of citizenship;

Within the European Union (EU), much progress has been made over the past years with regard to the collection of comparable and reliable information on the regulations with regard to the acquisition and loss of nationality in the Member States of the EU. The ILEC project provides much-needed additional information on the regulation and administrative practices on involuntary loss of nationality in the EU. While EU and international law provide important normative standards for the evaluation of these regulations and practices, in order to understand their practical relevance it is also important to have an insight in how many people are affected by such rules and practices.

№72 European Citizenship at a Crossroads. Enhancing European Cooperation on Acquisition and Loss of Nationality

№72 European Citizenship at a Crossroads. Enhancing European Cooperation on Acquisition and Loss of Nationality

Author(s): Sergio Carrera,René de Groot / Language(s): English

Keywords: European Citizenship; European cooperation; Acquisition and Loss of Nationality;

Are the Member States of the European Union (EU) free to take their own decisions concerning the acquisition and loss of nationality? European citizenship has progressively become the fundamental status of Member States’ nationals.Holding the nationality of a Member State constitutes the ‘master key’ to European citizenship. While the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality fall formally within member states’ national competences, their autonomy has been progressively remodelled as a result of international and European Union cooperation.

№73 Best Practices in Involuntary Loss of Nationality in the EU

№73 Best Practices in Involuntary Loss of Nationality in the EU

Author(s): René de Groot,Maarten Peter Vink / Language(s): English

Keywords: Involuntary Loss of Nationality in the EU; arbitrary deprivation; principle of proportionality;

This policy brief deals with loss of citizenship ofthe European Union (EU) due to the loss of nationality of a Member State. To hold nationality of an EU Member State is the master key to European citizenship. Only the nationals of a Member State possess European citizenship. Consequently, the loss of nationality of a Member State also implies the loss of European citizenship.

Latin American Reactions to the Adoption of the Returns Directive

Latin American Reactions to the Adoption of the Returns Directive

Author(s): Diego Acosta Arcarazo / Language(s): English

Keywords: Adoption of the Returns Directive; Latin America; EU; Immigration;

The European Union has had a clear-cut competency to deal with immigration since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1999. Since then, addressing irregular immigration, including the repatriation of irregular residents, has been a central part of the EU’s common immigration policy. The EU always defended the idea that an effective returns policy was key to ensuring public support for other elements in the policy, such as legal migration and asylum.

Global Jean Monnet/ European Community Studies Association.World Conference 25-26 May 2010

Global Jean Monnet/ European Community Studies Association. World Conference 25-26 May 2010

Author(s): Elspeth Guild / Language(s): English

Keywords: Global Jean Monnet; European Community Studies Association; European Union after the Treaty of Lisbon;

It is difficult to over-estimate the importance, and, in the fullness of time, the impact that theLisbon Treaty has and will have on fundamental rights and citizens of the Union. There are three main reasons for this:• Citizenship of the European Union has finally acquired its Bill of Rights in the form of alegally binding EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; the skeleton that citizenship of the Union once was is now acquiring the flesh and blood it needs to merit the title;• The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights transforms citizenship in the EU as it redefines whois entitled to ‘bundles of rights’ that inform the meaning of citizenship and belonging;

Assessing EU Policy on Irregular Immigration under the Stockholm Programme

Assessing EU Policy on Irregular Immigration under the Stockholm Programme

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: EU Policy; Irregular Immigration; Stockholm Programme;

The relationship between EU policy and the rights of undocumented migrants remains in tension. The status and treatment granted to undocumented migrants continues to be ‘invisible’ in EU policy strategies and responses. This is so despite the wide recognition and evidence of the vulnerability and insecurities these persons face in their access to fundamental rights. The ‘policy gap’ between current European policy-making under the third multi-annual programme on the Union’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice – the Stockholm Programme – and the results emerging from social science research funded by EU institutions has been assessed and evidenced elsewhere. This collection of papers aims at moving the debate forward by substantiating these findings with the experiences and knowledge of a selected group of EU umbrella (civil society) organisations and practitioners representing key institutions in Europe on fundamental human rights.

A farewell to open borders? The Danish Approach

A farewell to open borders? The Danish Approach

Author(s): Peter Hobbing / Language(s): English

Keywords: Open borders; borderless Europe; Danish initiative; EU;

Migratory pressure from abroad and populist trends in Europe have already put considerable stress on borderless Europe, despite the open borders being one of its most precious achievements. But what in the past could be seen as annoying yet temporary disturbances attained an entirely different character under the Danish initiative launched in early May 2011. The move to install permanent controls, including customs houses and video surveillance, alarmed not just Brussels but also travelers and business associations EU wide. Even though the new government has since banished the nightmare by repealing the border measures, one should still not sound the ‘all clear’ signal. With populist parties all over Europe, similar scenarios are likely to arise elsewhere.

Labour Migration and Unemployment. What can we learn from EU rules on the free movement of workers?

Labour Migration and Unemployment. What can we learn from EU rules on the free movement of workers?

Author(s): Sergio Carrera,Elspeth Guild / Language(s): English

Keywords: Labour Migration; Unemployment; EU rules; free movements;

This paper examines the impact of labour migration on unemployment in the context of the EU’s accession of Bulgaria and Romania and EU rules on the free movement of workers. It addresses in particular the following two questions. First, does intra-EU labour migration correlate with employment/unemploymentrates in host or home member states during periods of unsettled growth? Second, how have member states reacted in terms of restricting or allowing access to their labour markets by EU-2 workers during thetransitional periods?

№71 How to deal with quasi-loss of nationality situations? Learning from promising practices

№71 How to deal with quasi-loss of nationality situations? Learning from promising practices

Author(s): Gerard-René de Groot,Patrick Wautelet / Language(s): English

The central question of this policy brief is how quasi-loss situations should be treated in the European Union and its 28 Member States. More specifically, may the authorities of a Member State rightly argue that situations of quasi-loss amount to a mere non-acquisition of nationality? Or should we start from the assumption that there is no significant difference between the loss of and the quasi-loss of nationality? A next essential question is whether and how a person should under certain circumstances be protected against quasi-loss of her or his nationality? Due to the fact that a Member State entitles to European citizenship, it is desirable to compare the approaches of the different Member States to these questions and to develop recommendations to member States in light of the best practices.

Pushbacks and lack of Accountability at the Greek-Turkish borders

Pushbacks and lack of Accountability at the Greek-Turkish borders

Author(s): Roberto Cortinovis / Language(s): English

Keywords: asylum seekers; migration; refugees;

Amid escalating geopolitical tension with Turkey, in March 2020 the Greek authorities announced a hardline approach towards asylum seekers attempting to cross its land and sea borders with Turkey. The framing of cross-border movements as a ‘threat’ to the country’s national security served to justify a derogation from the human rights standards and procedural guarantees that are granted to people seeking protection under EU law. Since then, a pattern of systematic pushbacks at the border and informal returns represents the most visible expression of this hardening of border policies at the EU’s south-eastern borders. // This paper analyses the negative impact of this heavily securitised approach on asylum seekers’ fundamental rights, in particular its implications for the right to asylum that underpins the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). // The paper also reflects on the limits and ambiguities that have characterised the EU’s response to the situation at the Greek-Turkish borders, focusing on the role and responsibilities of the Frontex Agency. It underlines the need for the EU to remedy the shortcomings in existing accountability mechanisms, to guarantee effective remedies for victims of fundamental rights violations at the border. Establishing a sustainable human- rights-compliant management of migration in the eastern Mediterranean also requires that the EU move away from its focus on containing and restricting asylum seekers’ mobility – a focus that has characterised cooperation on migration and asylum with Turkey within the framework of the 2016 EU-Turkey Statement.