UN Global Compact on Refugees and its Relevance for the External Dimension of the EU's Asylum Policy

Since the 1999 European Union has included migration and asylum among the main topic of its external policy. The concept of “external dimension” of the migration and asylum policy (MAP) of the European Union was formally defined in 1999 by the European Council during the Tampere special meeting on justice and home affairs. In that meeting, the development of partnerships with migrants’ countries of origin and third countries concerned with the topic was identified as one of the four main actions for managing this issue. Nevertheless, the relevance of the relations between EU and external actors in MAP was developed since the early 1990s when the European Commission claimed for “to make migration an integral element of Community external policy”[1]. Many scholars (Carrera, Vara and Strik, 2019; Lavenex 2006 among others) stressed the actual EU activities on this topic are mainly guided by the will to shift responsibilities on refugees towards transit and/or origin countries and, sometimes, this strategy includes agreements which do not comply with the international and European human right standards. On 17 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). It is to be considered as a innovative political document which provides governments and regional organizations with guidelines on a “predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing” mode for governing asylum policy”. It starts with the recognition that a “sustainable solution to refugee situations cannot be achieved without international cooperation”. It is founded on principles as shared burdens and responsibilities, multilevel cooperation, regional partnerships; it aims at creating a comprehensive refugee response framework and spells out a series of short- and longer-term measures to address refugee crises. In this perspective, the GCR offers a new perspective for analyzing and assessing EU cooperation and agreements with third countries related to asylum and refugees. This paper will cross existing literature on EU Map with the literature on UN GCR with the aim to understand how principles and measures suggested by the GCR can impact on EU cooperation with third countries on asylum and migration. In the first part, this paper will analyze the concept and the practice of “external dimension” of EU MAP as it has emerged at international and European level and will identify its main policy paradigms, principles and actions. In the second part, the GCR will be assessed to verify if the actual practices of EU MAP comply with GCR requirements and how the non-binding UN document could provide EU political guideline for reframing and reforming its third countries arrangements with a stronger emphasis on fundamental rights and international protection rationale.