Santos Vara, Juan --- "Soft international agreements on migration cooperation with third countries: a challenge to democratic and judicial controls in the EU" [2019] ELECD 1333; in Carrera, Sergio; Santos Vara, Juan; Strik, Tineke (eds), "Constitutionalising the External Dimensions of EU Migration Policies in Times of Crisis" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 21

Book Title: Constitutionalising the External Dimensions of EU Migration Policies in Times of Crisis

Editor(s): Carrera, Sergio; Santos Vara, Juan; Strik, Tineke

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Soft international agreements on migration cooperation with third countries: a challenge to democratic and judicial controls in the EU

Author(s): Santos Vara, Juan

Number of pages: 18

Abstract/Description:

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the implications of using alternative instruments in international agreements to manage migration cooperation with third countries for the EU institutional framework. Even though the tendency to use soft law instruments in EU external relations is not new, the implementation of informal arrangements in the field of migration might have serious implications for asylum seekers and irregular migrants. There is also a widespread understanding that the EU is more likely to succeed in managing migration cooperation with third countries with informal migration arrangements than with international agreements. However, the signing of non-binding arrangements on migration does not necessarily lead in practice to a more efficient cooperation on migration and, in particular, to an increase in the number of returns of irregular migrants. It challenges the policy assumptions behind the informalisation of EU migration cooperation with third countries, in particular the proliferation of informal arrangements in the EU readmission policy.