The EU and its Perilous Journey Through the Migration Crisis: Informalisation of the EU Return Policy and Rule of Law Concerns

Abstract

The paper studies the effects of the migration crisis on the EU external action in the field of return and readmission of irregular migrants. It develops the following thesis: the external relations of the Union in the field of return have taken a different legal shape in response to the EU migration crisis. More particularly, they have gone through a process of informalisation, that casts doubt as to their compatibility with the rule of law. To prove this thesis, the paper starts by describing the tendency of the Union’s Institutions to rely increasingly on informal cooperation tools with third countries, as opposed to formal international agreements. Secondly, it explains in detail why this tendency is problematic from a rule of law perspective. It does so by analysing those primary law provisions intended to ensure the judicial and democratic accountability of the Union’s external action, and by testing their (in)applicability to informal deals.