The decision-making process in EU policy towards the Eastern neighbourhood: the case of immigration policy

This thesis investigates the EU policy-making process concerning the external dimension of migration focusing on the EU’s eastern neighbourhood. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on integrating a comprehensive migration dimension into the broader external policies of the EU. In 2004, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was developed as an overarching foreign policy tool integrating the EU’s existing policies towards its southern and eastern neighbourhood under a single framework with the objective of ensuring security and stability in the EU's neighbourhood. The management of cross-border movements along the EU’s new eastern frontiers in particular has moved up on the EU agenda with the eastern shift of the EU borders following the 2004/2007 eastern enlargements. With the increasing integration of migration policy objectives into the EU’s broader neighbourhood policy, the EU has progressively established a more streamlined form of cooperation with its immediate eastern neighbours concerning different dimensions of migration policy. The thesis examines the EU policy-making process with the aim of answering the question of how the EU policy has been shaped in the view of diverging national preferences and institutional roles and influence concerning the external dimension of migration policy. As a salient policy area central to national sovereignty and interest, the EU member states traditionally seek to control the impact of institutional constraints in the area of migration policy and support mechanisms by which they could exert national control over the policy outcomes. On the other hand, the increasing ‘communitarisation’ of the policy area since the Amsterdam Treaty has enhanced the role of the EU institutions. Drawing on the new-institututionalist approaches to EU policy-making, the thesis questions a purely intergovernmental understanding of policy-making dominated by the preferences of the member states in the external dimension of EU migration policy

The Evolution of EU’s Neighbourhood policy Towards eastern Europe

This article analyses the EU’s evolving relations with its eastern neighbourhood since the early 2000s, focusing on the diverging geographical preferences among the member states vis-à-vis the neighbourhood. In the past decade, the eastern shift of the EU borders in 2004 and 2007 paved the way for a significant increase in the political and financial commitments of the EU to its eastern neighbours. An EU level debate was launched regarding the need to enhance security and stability in the eastern neighbourhood in view of the then forthcoming enlargement. In 2004, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was put forward as a new foreign policy tool that integrated EU policies towards its eastern and southern neighbourhood under a single framework. However, the launch of the Eastern Partnership policy in 2009 demonstrated that a consensus has been developed among the member states with respect to enhanced bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the region. The article also evaluates the success of the Eastern Partnership policy regarding transformation of the relations between the EU and its eastern neighbours