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In September 2020, the Commission put forward a new pact on migration and asylum, setting out a comprehensive approach to European Union (EU) migration policies that links external borders, asylum, return systems, the Schengen area of free movement and the external dimension of migration. The pact includes a proposal for a new regulation on the screening of third-country nationals at external borders aiming to clarify and streamline the rules on dealing with third-country nationals who are not authorised ...

In the past decade, continuous migration and asylum pressure on European Union Member States has made the external dimension of the EU's approach to migration management all the more important. The need to address challenges relating to external border management has reoriented EU migration policy towards extended and stricter border controls, combined with the externalisation of migration management through cooperation with third countries. In this context, the external processing of asylum claims ...

More than 90 % of people who cross the external borders of the European Union (EU) irregularly do so with the assistance of migrant smugglers. The facilitation of irregular migration is a highly profitable criminal activity, given the relatively low risks incurred by the perpetrators. Detections of irregular border crossings are at their highest levels since 2016, yet demand for migration facilitation services has also risen to a new high. This high demand is not only due to the fact that people ...

State of the Schengen area

Briefing 12-12-2023

The development of the Schengen area is one of the major achievements of European integration. The removal of checks on persons at internal borders greatly facilitates the exercise of the EU freedoms of movement, which brings significant social and economic benefits. The Schengen area has come under increased stress in the past decade, owing to multiple challenges relating to increased migration into the EU, threats to internal security and the COVID 19 pandemic. In response to these challenges, ...

Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 transformed Frontex into the European Border and Coast Guard Agency and considerably increased its tasks, powers, responsibilities and budget. The regulation extended the agency's tasks and competences while also balancing them with stronger fundamental rights safeguards and increased liability and accountability, including by giving the European Parliament oversight of the agency's activities. As part of this oversight, Parliament endorses the agency's budget, can ask the ...

States must treat asylum-seekers and refugees according to the appropriate standards laid down in human rights and refugee law. The 2015 migration crisis revealed wide divergences in the level of reception conditions provided by Member States, which have persisted until today. While some are facing problems in ensuring adequate and dignified treatment of applicants, in others the standards of reception provided are more generous. This has led to secondary movements of asylum-seekers and refugees, ...

In December 2022, the Commission presented two proposals to revise the rules on the collection and transfer of advance passenger information (API) data – data collected by air carriers at check-in and sent to border control authorities in the country of destination prior to a flight's take-off. The current directive on the collection and transfer of API data will be replaced by two regulations: one on the collection and transfer of API data for border management purposes, and another on the collection ...

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, aims to analyse the European Commission’s proposals to reform the legal framework on the processing of Advance Passenger Information (API) data. The analysis takes stock of the current legal framework regarding the processing of travellers’ data. Then, it provides an outline of the Commission’s proposals, followed by an assessment of the fundamental ...

The IA examines the nature and scale of the problems sufficiently (the fact that not every person crossing the Schengen external borders is pre-checked with API data and that there are security gaps in the processing of air passenger data for law enforcement purposes). The IA provides a comprehensive description of the options. The sub-options under each of the intervention areas identified are limited and mostly cumulative; the range of alternative options therefore appears limited. The assessment ...

The Schengen area, which is free of systematic controls at internal borders, comprises 22 EU Member States and four non-EU associated countries. While four other Member States – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania – are bound by the Schengen body of EU law (acquis), internal border controls have not yet been lifted for them. Following a positive Schengen evaluation of Croatia, the Council has prepared a draft decision on the full application of the Schengen acquis in Croatia, and requested the ...