Bringing EU Migration Cooperation to the Eastern Neighbourhood: Convergence beyond the acquis communautaire?

Abstract

The European Union (EU) external cooperation in the migration field has been mostly developed in Eastern Europe. Indeed, the EU migration cooperation with Russia and Eastern Partnership countries has so far had outcomes in the issue areas of readmission, visas, border management and even labour migration. Policy Tools such as readmission agreements, visa facilitation agreements, FRONTEX working arrangements and Mobility Partnerships are being implemented gradually to the whole East European countries. Some of them have even been proposed to Belarus, a country with no contractual relations with the EU. Being this the state of affairs, this paper's objectives are twofold. Theoretically, it challenges the widespread assumption in the literature that the EU only seeks to Europeanise its neighbourhood, claiming that it also promotes international norms and the conclusion of agreements with third countries. Empirically, it analyses the evolution of the adoption of the policy tools mentioned above in the whole of the Eastern Partnership countries, in order to provide an account of the EU migration cooperation in the area. Special attention is paid to the role that other international actors - namely the International Organisation for Migration - play in the EU cooperation with Eastern Europe.