L’agenzificazione della gestione delle migrazioni nell’Unione Europea

Migration management is a policy area of paramount importance in contemporary Europe. At least since the unprecedented number of migrants and asylum seekers arriving at Europe's external borders in 2015-2016, it has become a central issue on the national, European, and international agendas, and attempts to manage such a challenging and transformative phenomenon as migration are manifold at all institutional levels. At the European level, where legislation on migration and asylum has been in place since the 1990s, the surge in arrivals commonly referred to as the “migration crisis” is more a crisis of governance, revealing a persistent implementation gap in migration and asylum policies as well as a solidarity gap among Member States (MS). Against this backdrop, the role of EU agencies, particularly the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (commonly referred to as Frontex) and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO, which later became the European Union Agency for Asylum, EUAA), in supporting MS in the areas of migration, asylum, and external control has come to the fore, and their mandates have been significantly expanded. In 2019, Frontex’s mandate was de jure expanded through a regulation establishing the agency’s “shared responsibility” with national authorities in the context of integrated European border management. In 2021, EASO became a fully-fledged agency, the EUAA, with enhanced functions and a role that is no longer limited to supporting practical cooperation between MS, but “strengthens and contributes to the efficient functioning of the asylum and reception systems”. Although the main objectives of the two agencies have essentially not changed, their expanded tasks go far beyond the original operational support and administrative cooperation features. The intervention of EU agencies in migration management was conceived as emergency support to MS in crisis situations. However, their increasingly relevant involvement is becoming a standard practice, showing the strong advancement of the agencification process in the European migration policy. The agencification of EU migration management is worth exploring when analysing the transformation of the European political and institutional system, its implications, and the influence of current social and digital changes on this transformation. Consequently, this panel aims to contribute to the debate on “Politics and Institutions between Transformations and Reforms” by examining - also in light of the reform proposals contained in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum - the transformations that have taken place, are taking place, and are expected to take place in the EU political and institutional system in relation to migration management, both in terms of normal times and times of crisis. Specifically, the panel discussion, moderated by Maria Vittoria Forte (PhD student at the University of Naples Federico II and visiting fellow at the RENFORCE project at Utrecht University) tackles the agencification of EU migration management from multiple perspectives. The moderator will lead the discussion by introducing the topic and underlining the close connection with the conference “Politics and Institutions between Transformations and Reforms”. EU agencies have become key actors in the EU migration institutional setting: their contribution to setting up the EU’s operational coordination efforts is evidence of the transformations undergoing in EU migration management. However, the direct involvement of EU Agencies in asylum and border control procedures raises several questions from an accountability to a human rights perspective, as it will be addressed throughout the panel.