Asylum, borders and migration: How the European Parliament is responding to citizens' expectations

The Conference on the Future of Europe was designed to give citizens a say about their vision for the EU, by means of a multilingual digital platform and citizens' panels. The panels are transnational forums, gathering citizens from the EU Member States to discuss their ideas for the future of the Union and make recommendations on how the EU could be improved. The resulting proposals are diverse and constructive. The suggestions for the future range from adjustments of legislation in force to complete overhaul of current systems in an effort to build a more efficient, integrated Union that is closer to its citizens. This briefing focuses on some of the recommendations made by Panel 4 (EU in the world/migration), suggestions and comments uploaded onto the multilingual digital platform, and proposals brought forward by the European Youth Event. The topics cover EU policy on asylum, irregular migration and border protection, and the role of EU agencies in this area. Participants also considered the future of legal migration and integration of migrants in the EU. The second part of the briefing gives and overview of the European Parliament's position on these topics, and its call for change in the fields where citizens have asked for more EU action. This is the briefing in a series looking at citizens' expectations in the context of the Conference on the Future of Europe. The first briefing looked at expectations having mainly a constitutional and institutional impact, i.e. suggestions to reform the EU institutional set-up, improve the EU decision-making process, achieve closer cooperation among Member States, and strengthen Parliament's prerogatives. The second one looked at proposals to enhance citizens' participation to the European project, through consultations, petitions, European Citizens Initiatives and referendums.