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In December 2021, the European Commission presented a proposal to amend the Schengen Borders Code, which lays down the rules governing controls at the EU internal and external borders. While debates on the reform of Schengen have been going on for a while, recent challenges – relating to the coronavirus pandemic on the one hand, and attempts to instrumentalise migrants as a way to put pressure on the EU's external borders, on the other – have created new momentum for reform. The Commission's proposal ...

In September 2020, the Commission put forward a new pact on migration and asylum, setting out a comprehensive approach to European Union (EU) migration policies that links external borders, asylum, return systems, the Schengen area of free movement and the external dimension of migration. The pact includes a proposal for a new regulation on the screening of third-country nationals at external borders aiming to clarify and streamline the rules on dealing with third-country nationals who are not authorised ...

In 2016, with unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in the EU, the European Commission proposed a package of reforms to the common European asylum system (CEAS). In June 2018, a broad provisional agreement was reached between the European Parliament and the presidency of the Council of the EU on several of the reform proposals. However, the agreement did not get the necessary support from the Member States. The reform stalled owing to persistent disagreements among ...

More than 90 % of people who cross the external borders of the European Union (EU) irregularly do so with the assistance of migrant smugglers. The facilitation of irregular migration is a highly profitable criminal activity, given the relatively low risks incurred by the perpetrators. Detections of irregular border crossings are at their highest levels since 2016, yet demand for migration facilitation services has also risen to a new high. This high demand is not only due to the fact that people ...

Each year, International Migrants' Day is observed on 18 December. Designated by the United Nations General Assembly on 4 December 2000, in response to increasing migration around the world, the day aims to draw attention to migrants' human rights and highlight their contribution to our societies.

The development of the Schengen area is one of the major achievements of European integration. The removal of checks on persons at internal borders greatly facilitates the exercise of the EU freedoms of movement, which brings significant social and economic benefits. The Schengen area has come under increased stress in the past decade, owing to multiple challenges relating to increased migration into the EU, threats to internal security and the COVID 19 pandemic. In response to these challenges, ...

The European Union (EU) has developed a complex architecture of information systems to support its policies on external borders, migration management, and internal security. In response to recent migration and security challenges, the EU has sought to expand and upgrade its existing information systems on borders and security, as well as to establish new systems and to ensure their interconnection (interoperability). The underlying policy goal has been to 'close information gaps' on third-country ...

European Union (EU) Regulation 2018/1806, the Visa Regulation, determines the non-EU countries whose nationals are subject to, or exempt from, the visa requirement. The EU currently has a visa exemption regime with 61 non-EU countries – including two special administrative regions of China (Hong Kong and Macao) and one territorial authority (Taiwan) that is not recognised as a state by at least one EU Member State. By 1 January 2024, Kosovo will join the list. Under this regime, nationals from these ...

The 'hotspot approach' was presented by the European Commission as part of the European agenda on migration in April 2015, when record numbers of refugees, asylum-seekers and other migrants began arriving in the EU. The 'hotspots' (first reception facilities) were intended to improve coordination of EU agencies' and national authorities' efforts at the external borders of the EU, in the initial reception, identification, registration and fingerprinting of asylum-seekers and migrants. Although other ...

This substitute impact assessment of the European Commission's proposal for a regulation addressing situations of instrumentalisation in the field of migration and asylum was requested by the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in the absence of a European Commission impact assessment accompanying the proposal. This substitute IA reviews the problem identified by the Commission and the objectives of the instrumentalisation proposal. It studies the proposal's ...