Abstract: With the Eastern Enlargement successfully completed, the EU is searching for a proper balance between internal security and external stabilisation that is acceplable to all sides. This paper focuses on an EU foreign policy instrument that is a case in point for this struggle: EC visa facilitation and readmission agreements. By looking at the EU's strategy on visa facilitation and readmission, this paper aims to offer a first systematic analysis of the objectives, substance and political implications of these agreements as a means to implement a new EU security approach in the neighbourhood. In offering more relaxed travel conditions in exchange for the signing of an EC readmission agreement and reforming domestic justice and home affairs, the EU has found a new way to press for reforms in neighbouring countries while addressing a major source of discontent in these countries. The analysis concluded with the broader implications of these agreements and argues that even if the facili

Offering the first comprehensive analysis of readmission agreements, this book examines the intersection of immigration and human rights law and the complex interplay between evolving international, regional and national norms. Expanding the current academic and policy discourse on readmission agreements through detailed consideration of the negotiation processes carried out by the European Community, it renders a nuanced review of the underlying strategic objectives and regional effects of these treaties. The book makes a robust challenge to prevailing perspectives in legal scholarship and policy on readmission and refugee protection. The self-contained focus on EC readmission agreements throws light on broader questions of EU migration policy and reveals a detailed and insightful picture of a specific field of EU policy and action.

In spite of sharp deterioration of the human rights situation in the country in the aftermath of the presidential election, the EU organs continued internal procedures and, finally, in June 2011, the European Commission sent Belarus an invitation to start negotiations on visa facilitation and readmission. [...] When would the agreement be signed and would will it change On the one hand, based on the functioning agreements with the other five EaP countries, drawing up the texts of the visa facilitation and readmission agreements (they go in one package) between Belarus and the EU shall not take much time. [...] On the other hand, as http://belinstitute.eu/en/node/1113 BB #16/2013EN www.belinstitute.eu 3 the experience of the other EaP countries shows, it took at least nine months from the beginning of the negotiations to actual signing of the agreements. [...] In fact, the visa facilitation agreements do not bring significant facilitation of the visa regime with the EU, in spite of the agreements' name. [...] In 2008 popular Ukrainian daily Korrespondent awarded the visa facilitation agreement with the title Disappointment of the Year, which demonstrated that the agreement came short of expectations of the Ukrainian population.

Mediterranean states have developed various cooperation mechanisms to cope with issues relating to migration. This book critically analyses how institutional actors act and interact on the international scene in the control and management of migration in the Mediterranean.

"Migration and the Externalities of European Integration analyzes the extra-European dimension of the European Union's (EU) migration policies and the mechanisms developed to enforce the EU's policy decisions. While previous scholarship has tended to overlook the consequences of Europeanization on actors outside the EU this work scrutinizes the foreign policy dimension in EU migration policies and highlights the Union's complex role as an international actor. Written by scholars of migration policy, the essays discuss the impact of EU asylum and refugee policy on Norway, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Euro-Mediterranean, and EU-Turkish relations and the effect of migration on European immigration controls and welfare policy. This comprehensive treatment of transnational migration will be a valuable resource for students of international affairs, European integration, and international organization."