Failure of the Common European Migration and Asylum Policy and the EU’s Democratic Legitimacy: The Member States Left Holding the Sack!?

    • IMG_7268
    • Presentation speakers
      • Mészáros Edina Lilla, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania

    Abstract:

    The process of European integration gradually transferred governance from the regulatory sphere of the member states to the EU institutions. This transfer of competences raised the problem of legitimacy in governance, as it began to circulate that these competences were ceded to supranational institutions led by unelected bureaucrats and there’s a lack of real political competition for the levers of power, thus giving birth to the so-called democratic deficit-thesis. Criticisms abound, stating that the EU is lacking transparency; its decisions do not reflect the interests of the citizens, arguing that the gap between the EU and the citizens is getting bigger. Our research aims to unfold the problem of the EU’s democratic legitimacy by analyzing the developments in its Common Migration and Asylum Policy, which by the civil society, and NGOs like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch is held accountable for the recent tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea, at the island of Lampedusa and Malta. The Amsterdam Treaty put down the basis of a common asylum and refugee policy, and the Lisbon Treaty reiterated that the EU was an area of freedom, security and justice, where every refugee has the right to a fair asylum procedure. Some EU member states are more predisposed than others to migratory waves, and the burdens are disproportional and fairly shared by other member states. Countries like Italy, Malta or Greece blame the supranational institutions for their uneven burden and wonder if they won’t be better off without a Common Migration and Asylum Policy, thus directly questioning the EU’s legitimacy. By putting under magnifying glass the EU’s Common Migration and Asylum Policy, we will try to demystify the current trend in the EU, whether there’s a clear return to the nation states or are we going forward to a more integrated Europe, deciphering the eternal dilemma of more or less Europe.

 

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