What Future for the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice? : Recommendations on EU Migration and Borders Policies in a Globalising World

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, has launched a brainstorming exercise about the future policy priorities for the development of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). Migration and borders will constitute two of the most relevant policies on which the next EU budget covering the AFSJ beyond 2013 will be focused. Migration represents one of the key dimensions in the EU agenda in light of globalisation and the demographic transformations of the region. The Commission plans to present a Communication on a European Migration Policy by June 2008. The upcoming French Presidency of the EU (July-December 2008) will focus on developing a common EU migration policy2 and a European Pact on Immigration and Asylum (pacte européen pour l’immigration et l’asile).

It is expected that the French Presidency will closely collaborate with the European Commission to adopt a set of general policy guidelines on which the nearfuture EU policy on immigration will be built. These principles will serve as the foundation for the successor to the Second Multi-annual Programme on an AFSJ, The Hague Programme (which runs from 2004 until the end of 2009), which will be adopted under the auspices of the Swedish Presidency (July-December 2009). This Policy Brief puts forward a package of policy recommendations covering the following three themes:

I. How to structure Justice and Home Affairs in the EU: to get the best results

II. Mastering the integration debate and comprehensively framing the citizen/foreigner/ immigrant relationship

III. The utility of large-scale information systems with interoperable databases including biometric technology for the protection of people living in the EU.

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Recommendations on EU Migration and Borders Policies in a Globalising World