Contact: Dr Wolfgang Zellner

This project examined the emergence of "preventive" approaches in EU co-operation on immigration and asylum efforts to limit immigration and refugee flows into the EU through addressing the causes of migration and forced displacement. It analysed the reasons for the emergence of such preventive approaches in EU policy and assessed how far, and with what success, the EU had integrated preventive goals into its relations with third countries. It examined in detail the cases of Kosovo and Morocco, where the European Commission, European Council and Council of Ministers have been engaged in developing preventive approaches.

The following conclusions were particularly important: Until recently, a number of institutional impediments have hindered the integration of preventive approaches into EU external policy - in particular, the reluctance of development and external relations officials in the European Commission to mainstream migration or refugee preventive goals into their policies. The result has been that Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) officials, especially in the Council of Ministers, have tended to focus on "repressive" rather than preventive approaches to migration management in their relations with third countries. In other words, the onus has been in police and judicial co-operation as well as measures to prevent trafficking and illegal migration rather than on more development- or human rights-oriented measures to address the causes of flows.

This may be changing now: pressure "from above", in the form of European Council conclusions, have obliged Commission officials in DGs Development and External Relations (Relex) to make more concerted efforts to integrate preventive approaches into relations with third countries. The increased engagement of external relations officials and better co-ordination between these and JHA officials within the Commission, have implied more integrated and far-sighted strategies for addressing the causes of migration and forced displacement; and more sensitivity to the concerns of third countries.

However, the sustainability of these more integrated approaches will be partly contingent on the availability of additional financial resources for prevention as well as continued pressure from above, i.e. via the European Council. The case of Morocco illustrates these points well: development and Relex officials were initially reluctant to integrate preventive approaches, leaving the vacuum to be filled by the "High Level Working Group" based in the Council of Ministers. Only in the last two years has the Commission re-seized the initiative, now developing specially targeted development programmes to reduce migratory pressures. As yet, it is too early to assess the impact of these policies on flows.

The case of Kosovo highlights the mixed success of attempts to prevent refugee flows through military intervention. The NATO action initially triggered large-scale displacement, although subsequent deployment of KFOR provided conditions in which en masse return was possible, but not for non-ethnic Albanian groups. EU efforts to promote a "regional solution" to the refugee crisis during the conflict (i.e. to promote reception of refugees in neighbouring countries), meanwhile, proved unfeasible and EU states were eventually obliged to relocate refugees from FYROM because of the impact of mass influx on inter-ethnic relations there.

Kosovo also shows how preventive strategies shift in the context of "pre-accession" processes. Since the end of the conflict, Kosovo has been increasingly treated as a future EU member state. This implies that rather than selectively focusing on regions with high migratory potential or on forms of development that will be most likely to reduce migratory pressures, the EU has adopted a more holistic approach to aligning the Western Balkans to the EU acquis. In this context, it makes less sense to define co-operation under the SAA as a migration prevention strategy.

The project was worked on by Dr Christina Boswell from July 2001 to June 2003 in the frame of a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship funded by the European Commission.