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The arrival of refugees and irregular migrants in the EU in unprecedented numbers in 2015 exposed a number of deficiencies in the EU's external border, asylum and migration policy, and sparked EU action through various legal and policy instruments. Today, even though the EU has been relatively successful in securing its external borders, curbing irregular migrant arrivals and increasing cooperation with third countries, Member States are still reluctant to show solidarity and do more to share responsibility ...

The European Union's objectives in the field of external border protection are to safeguard freedom of movement within the Schengen area (an area without internal borders) and to ensure efficient monitoring of people who cross the Union's external borders. To strengthen its external borders and prevent irregular migrants from reaching its territory, the European Union (EU) has turned its focus to extending its partnerships with third countries and to reinforcing its border agencies, providing them ...

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, over 6.5 million people have been forced to seek refuge, mostly in the European Union (EU) and its neighbouring countries. Reacting swiftly when the invasion began, the EU decided to grant Union-wide temporary protection to people arriving from Ukraine. By April 2024, nearly 4.2 million third-country nationals had benefited from this possibility. The EU Temporary Protection Directive (Directive 2001/55/EC) allows EU Member States to move swiftly to offer ...

This paper provides a graphic overview on core legislation in the area of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. The presentation essentially covers the areas within the responsibility of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, but also displays neighbouring areas of other Committees' competences which are closely connected to and impacting on IMCO's work. This document was provided by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies and the Secretariat ...

In December 2023, the Commission proposed to amend Directive (EU) 2015/637 on the coordination and cooperation measures to facilitate consular protection for unrepresented citizens of the Union in third countries, and Directive (EU) 2019/997 establishing an EU emergency travel document. The aim is to make improvements in the areas covered by the two directives, in response to crises such as COVID-19, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine, and repatriations from Israel and Gaza. The intended outcomes ...

Sixty years ago, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on the conflict between a rule of Community law, part of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) ('EEC Treaty'), and a subsequent rule of national law, part of a legislative act adopted by a Member State parliament. The ECJ ruled that such a conflict should be resolved in line with the primacy of EU law principle that national courts must apply. The Costa v Enel case concerned an Italian nationalisation law, which created ...

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 brought new momentum for reform. The Commission's proposal ...

The European Sovereignty Fund (EUSF) should invest in Europe’s future by investing indirectly in start-ups and scale-ups via the existing Fund of the European Innovation Council (EIC). This would be concrete step to advance the aims of the recently agreed Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP). The EUSF could also invest in security of supply by acquiring and managing strategic stockpiles of critical raw materials. This would foster the aim of the Critical Raw Material Act. To succeed ...

Fisheries in Europe's marine environment use different types of mobile and static fishing gears that come into contact with the seabed, including mobile bottom-contacting gears (MBCGs) towed through the water and across the seabed. This study explores: the innovative gears that could be deployed as an alternative to the exclusion of bottom trawling in EU marine protected areas (MPAs); the efficacy and feasibility of implementing such innovations; and the environmental and socioeconomic effects on ...

The concept of European Union (EU) citizenship was formally introduced into the EU constitutional order by Article 8 of the Treaty of Maastricht (today Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, TFEU). This form of citizenship is additional to national citizenship and does not replace it. However, the introduction of European citizenship took over two decades to reach fruition – from discussions in the early 1970s up to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. This briefing examines the ...