Beyond the ‘Migration Crisis’: The Evolving Role of EU Agencies in the Administrative Governance of the Asylum and External Border Control Policies

Abstract

The 2015-2016 ‘migration crisis’ catapulted shifts in the implementation modes of the EU asylum and external border control policies. It brought EU agencies at the forefront, and is pointing to an increasingly integrated European administration. I critically assess the role of EU agencies in the administrative governance of these policies, commenting on the constitutional and operational limits to these dynamics. I analyse patterns of joint implementation, with experts deployed by EU agencies involved in areas such as the processing of asylum claims, and return. I scrutinize the emergence of monitoring-like functions, and functions which have the potential to steer policy implementation. This creates obvious tensions with the agencies’ governance structures which are largely intergovernmental, and influenced by strong regulators. It also brings to sharp relief the challenges of independence and accountability.

Keywords: EU agencies; asylum; migration; refugee protection; borders; agencification; Common European Asylum System; migration governance; accountability; European Union; FRONTEX; EASO