Documents Pascouau, Yves 9 results

"Over the last decade and more particularly the last couple of months, the EU has faced the development of increasing conflicts on migration related issues. The situation has raised such a level of struggles that bringing back equilibrium in such a conflicting environment will be a hard task for all players and at all stages. However, if EU leaders are unable to take the appropriate political decisions and actions, the EU integration process will simply be at risk.

In its first part, the paper tries to sketch the picture of the breadth of creeping conflicts currently taking place within the EU. While current tensions occurring at political level highlight the existence of conflicts between the EU member states, another conflict – more worrying – is taking place and concerns the widening distance or distrust between citizens and the EU project. In this situation of developing conflicts, the role of the media deserves also to be questioned.

On this basis, the second part of the paper argues there is still space to regain consensus and bring back the EU as a source of prosperity rather than a nest of problems. However, the paper takes the view that a European Council/“top-down” type of approach cannot suffice and will not work out. It is necessary to relaunch a pedagogical approach so as to rebuilt citizens' understanding and trust in the EU's actions and project. This implies two sets of actions:

• In the short run, all players at EU and national levels have to deliver on their promises to show that decisions taken are implemented and produce effects.

• In the medium run, the same players have to kick-start a strategic process to understand, prepare and adopt appropriate answers to the migration phenomenon for the long-term future."

"The first edition of this new multi-authored publication entitled ‘Migration Panorama' focuses on the consequences of the refugee and migration crisis on the Schengen area and the concept of a borderless union. Several external and EPC authors have contributed to building a comprehensive picture on the manifold challenges and possible consequences of maintaining and/or returning to internal border controls among Schengen countries. How does a signatory of the Schengen agreement see the current developments? What would be the impact of the reintroduction of physical borders on Europe's digital economy? In what way do the V4 countries envisage to solve the ‘Schengen crisis'? How dangerous are the empty threats to expel Greece out of the Schengen area? What is the symbolic meaning of the Belgian border controls following the French decision to dismantle parts of the Calais ‘jungle'? Is saving Schengen only a question of national sovereignty or a matter of shared European responsibility? All these questions and many others are tackled in this first issue of the ‘Migration Panorama' produced by EPC' s Migration and Diversity Programme."

"Over the last 15 years, Member States have been quite reluctant to address labour migration issues at EU level. Will the forthcoming years reverse the tide and lead to the developement of ambitious and common actions in this policy field? There are currently no strong signs of such a move towards a greater management of labour migration policy at EU level. However, Yves Pascouau argues in this FIERI Working paper that the deadlock may be broken with the development of new policy tools taking place in the field of economic governance. More precisely, he underlines that recipes adopted to overcome the so-called ‘euro crisis' may well have an impact on labour migration issues.As a consequence, this could initiate a coordination process which was not called for by home affairs decision-makers."

"Migration trends and flows are changing, and calling countries and regions to provide new answers and policies. In this changing landscape, many European and Asian countries are characterised by ageing and shrinking populations. In order to ensure their economic growth and maintain their welfare systems, they have implemented a series of measures to reduce the demographic effects, among which opening channels to legal migration plays a key role. As these countries try to attract the same group of people, mainly highly-skilled professionals and low-skilled workers, increasing competition between the two regions might be observed in the upcoming years. In particular, high-skilled professionals are targeted by receiving societies. They are encouraged to stay for longer periods, or even enticed to settle down permanently. This is achieved by providing them with rights and benefits, facilitating their stay, and making them the target of integration policies.

As the status of the countries in Europe and Asia differs greatly in terms of whether they are considered sending, receiving or transit countries of migration, it is hardly possible to generalize both the problems and the policies to tackle them.

In order to contribute to the understanding of current challenges and implemented solutions, this publication includes papers with perspectives from Europe and Asia. What are the migration and integration policies as well as present challenges in these countries? What can they learn from each other? How do they try to facilitate migration and make it a beneficial process?"

"While the free movement of people is one of the four basic freedoms of the EU, the Single European Labour Market is still far from completion. Today, around 3% of EU citizens and an even smaller number of EU residents from third countries take advantage of the opportunities that the freedom of movement offer. In an effort to contribute to the advancement of the Single European Labour Market, and countering current popular political argumentation, this report by Claire Dhéret, Alex Lazarowicz, Francesco Nicoli, Yves Pascouau and Fabian Zuleeg aims to explore the strategic potential of intra-EU labour mobility for the benefit of the European (Monetary) Union, individual member-state economies and mobile workers themselves.
To this end, the authors propose an ambitious and comprehensive strategy towards labour mobility. This strategy aims to address obstacles to mobility, as well as create incentives to encourage people to move. It also aims to reinforce the role of public policies, both at the EU and national level, in order to address potential costs and optimise a better allocation of human resources."

"Since 1999, EU labour migration has remained a field in which member states have proven to be reluctant to adopt common rules, thus neglecting to develop a sound and comprehensive EU labour migration policy. This situation is not satisfactory given forthcoming demographic and economic challenges which call for a rethink of an EU-wide migration policy, addressing the issue of common admission rules in the framework of the Single European Labour Market. However, current economic difficulties and the ‘populist' political climate hamper the ability to take this step further. As a result, EU labour migration policy is stuck between what already exists - which we can call the ‘first building block' - and what is needed in order to overcome future challenges - which we propose to conceptualise as the ‘third building block' - but which will not be put in motion now due to the economic and political climate.
In between is the ‘second building block‘, i.e. what is feasible and politically-acceptable to develop in the short term. This Issue Paper by Yves Pascouau argues that, for the time being, the only opportunity to move ahead is based on the development of intra-EU mobility facilities for migrant workers already residing in the member states. On the basis of this, Pascouau explores how intra-EU mobility could be improved at EU level. He first analyses the existing intra-EU mobility rules and concludes that the right to freedom of movement is awarded to limited categories of third-country nationals and under different regimes which do not make mobility attractive. The paper then proposes solutions to enhance intra-EU mobility for migrant workers that already reside in the EU."

"EU labour migration policy is a sensitive issue to deal with. It has been developed on a sectoral basis, i.e. through the adoption of directives targeting selective persons. Currently, any further development is made very difficult due to the economic crisis and the negative political climate in member states. Hence, the adoption of EU rules governing the admission of third-country nationals appears somehow impossible. However, and given the serious challenges that the EU and its member states will have to face, or are already facing, with respect to labour shortages, it is necessary to move forward. In this difficult context, one politically-acceptable opportunity remains: the development of intra-EU mobility facilities for migrant workers already residing in the member states. This Discussion Paper by Yves Pascouau aims to explore how intra-EU mobility could be improved at EU level. It analyses existing EU rules and concludes that the right to freedom of movement is awarded to limited categories of third-country nationals and under different regimes which do not make mobility attractive. Given the inadequacy of such a situation, the paper proposes solutions to enhance intra-EU mobility for migrant workers who already reside in the EU."

"This EPC strategy paper argues that Europe finds itself at a crossroads. Either European leaders succeed in re-energising European integration or the EU will lose relevance for its citizens and become marginal as the principal instrument of shaping their future. To master the current crisis Europe needs new momentum. Translating into practice the Union's strategic objective of a global Europe, which is able to co-determine international developments in a highly dynamic global environment and deliver peace and prosperity for its citizens, requires that the EU and its members concentrate their efforts on concrete, ambitious, yet realistic, strategic projects. The paper argues that the resolution of the euro crisis is a condicio sine qua non for the future of the European project. However, it will not suffice to merely follow a reactive approach aimed at papering over the cracks. Once the sovereign debt crisis is contained, the EU will be in dire need of proactive projects that could reignite integration, rebuild consensus, and attract and tie the leadership ambitions of its key actors on both the national and European level. For Europe to remain relevant, leaders could chose among four potential strategic projects: (1) the completion of a truly integrated internal market; (2) the establishment of a common migration and asylum policy; (3) the revitalisation of the European social model through a common vision of a ‘Social Europe'; (4) the establishment of a ‘Defence Union'."

"Published within the framework of the ‘Well-being 2030' project, co-financed by the European Commission, this new issue of Challenge Europe addresses the question of how to turn social policy into an effective productive factor, enabling well-being of Europeans and economic growth. Based on the argument that social policy can contribute to long-term sustainable growth, this multi-author publication focuses on those policies which can potentially bring the most added value to citizens' life, and includes contributions from high-level policy-makers, academics, business representatives and experts about the future of social policy in Europe. While the first chapter explores the possible synergies between growth, well-being and social policy, the second part of this EPC's policy journal turns to those policy areas where intervention can be the most effective. Finally, in a third chapter, the authors look at the EU's room of manoeuvre and propose specific policy actions."