From the hotspot approach to the New Pact on Migration and Asylum: agencification and (de)politicisation of the new border procedure
(2025) The European Union in International Affairs — Location: Bruxelles (2025.May.21AD)
Files
No attached file found for this publication.
Details
- Authors
Piquet, Agathe 
- Abstract
- Since the 2015 refugee crisis EU agencies (Frontex, EASO/EUAA, Europol) have been at the center stage of EU’s migration and external border control policies. The 2024 Pact on Migration and Asylum (PMA) is the continuity of these developments with the expansion of both the monitoring and the operational powers of EU agencies. While agencification is not new at EU level, especially in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), the importance of the post-2015 dynamics has been underestimated by some. Part of the explanation is that agencification in reaction to the 2015 events happened both de jure and de facto, especially through the hotspot approach of the European Commission (EC). This communication argues that an additional explanatory variable of this different understanding of these processes lies in the depoliticisation strategies used by the EC to push for a quiet reinforcement of EU agencies’ capabilities. Therefore, this paper invites to consider how the EC tried to dilute the political debates around agencification in migration and external border control policies through three strategies: the presentation of agencification as problem-driven and output-oriented; a limited public communication about this political choice, conducted in technical terms; a policymaking through secluded arenas restricted to special interests and experts. However, the critical transformations in the role of agencies in reaction to the 2015 refugee crisis have led to a politicization backlash particularly around the issue of fundamental rights violations. Yet, the EC’s failure was only partial, and did not really call into question the post-2015 dynamics at work that persisted during the PMA negotiations. Indeed, the very intense politicisation of other aspects of EU migration and asylum policies has benefited the agencification pushed quietly by the EC, both in European law and in practice, with remaining concerns about the fundamental rights of migrants.
- Affiliations
Citations
Piquet, A., & Duez, D. (2025). From the hotspot approach to the New Pact on Migration and Asylum: agencification and (de)politicisation of the new border procedure. The European Union in International Affairs, Bruxelles. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/259899