EU Migration Partnership Revisited

Participants of the expert workshop

Panelists f.l.t.r.: Zahra Langhi, Director of the Libyan Women's Platform for Peace, Peter Rimmele, KAS Resident Representative Lebanon, Hala El Helou, Advisor to the Lebanese Minister of State on Displaced Affairs, Dr. Moha Ennaji, Director of the South North Centre for Intercultural Dialogue and Migration Studies, and Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman of the European Stability Initiative

Participants of the workshop during one of the engaged discussions

Panelists f.l.t.r.: Dr. Mehdi Lahlou, Institut National de Statistique et d'Economie Appliquée Morocco, Dr. Neven Bondokji, Senior Research Fellow at the WANA Institute in Jordan, Roberto Cancel, Labor Mobility and Human Development Regional Thematic Specialist for the MENA region for IOM, Dr. Benjamin Schraven, German Development Institute

Participants of the workshop during the concluding discussion on recommendations for the future development of EU migration policies

For at least a decade, the issue of migration and mobility has been a focus for the different forms of cooperation, dialogue and partnership between the European Union and the countries of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. The growing numbers of persons globally on the move and in need of protection, in particularly refugees in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, pose new challenges both for countries of transit and destination. A key step in dealing with the multitude of challenges was taken through the Valletta EU Migration Summit in November 2015 and the new Migration Partnership Framework in June 2016. In order to review these existing instruments of EU migration policies and the developments since the Valletta summit, the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean invited experts from the MENA region, Europe as well as other relevant African countries, such as Ethiopia and Niger, to participate in an expert workshop from 27-28 March in Malta.

During the workshop, the participants discussed current EU policies as well as developments in EU migration policies since Valletta, identifying the most important new initiatives. The workshop thus provided a platform to assess the success but also shortcomings of existing dialogue formats, on the regional, bilateral and intraregional level, and to provide recommendations for necessary adjustments and potential improvements based on this evaluation.