EU policy regarding asylum and immigration: An assessment of the post-Amsterdam period.

摘要

The study assesses the EU immigration and asylum policy since its foundation under the Treaty of Maastricht (1992) with a special emphasis on the post-Amsterdam Period (1999-2004). The central question of this thesis is whether there is a uniform EU policy in place and why the current system has not managed illegal and legal immigration in a very efficient way. In the first part, important issues which are shaped by immigration are discussed. Root causes of migration, globalization as well as security and socioeconomic factors play a significant rote when analyzing the current EU restrictive immigration paradigm.; In the second and third parts, the legal stipulations of the Treaties of Maastricht (creating the third pillar of Justice and Home Affairs) and Amsterdam (shifting the external dimension of asylum and immigration to the first pillar) are critically assessed. Special emphasis is given to the Tampere Summit (1999) and its subsequent implementation phase (1999-2004), which was supposed to establish a uniform EU border, immigration and asylum system in an Area of Freedom, Justice and Security. The Hague Program was launched in 2004, indicating that the Tampere Implementation Phase was not successfully completed and had several shortcomings, such as delays in implementation, caused by the member states' reluctance.; The last two parts of this study offer an alternative approach to the existing restrictive EU paradigm by shifting it to a more liberal but consolidated one. The EU needs to adopt a comprehensive strategy by including the areas of development assistance and integration into the migration management equation to improve the overall performance of a common EU policy. Thus, no uniform EU immigration and asylum system exists and this is partially caused by the reluctance of the member states to implement EU legislation and by the inherent shortcomings within the EU institutional structure and the decision making process. The ratification of the EU Constitutional Treaty would provide the necessary legal provisions to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation process because it establishes the community decision-making procedure as standard and reduces to a minimum the unanimity rule in the Council of Europe.