Square pegs in round holes: using trade conditionalities to foster migration cooperation between the EU and third countries
11 Wednesday Oct 2023
SERIES OF BLOG POSTS ON MIGRATION AND TRADE PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROF. ELSPETH GUILD
NUMBER 6
By Amanda Bisong, Policy Officer at ECDPM Center for Africa-Europe Relations
This series of blog posts on Trade & Migration is published upon the initiative of Prof. Elspeth Guild in relation with the controversial proposal for a regulation on the scheme of preferences for developing countries that the Commission links to the issue of readmission of irregular migrants.
Several EU Member States have called on the commission to explore using all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools to promote effective returns from the EU to countries of origin. Some of these tools include development cooperation, visas, pathways for legal migration and now discussions are ongoing on how to leverage trade policy instruments in promoting the return of third country nationals in an irregular situation to their countries of origin. In response to these discussions, several opinions have examined the legality of the proposals on the basis of WTO law, international law and other commitments.