Searching for a Strategy for the European Union's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice by Sarah Léonard & Christian Kaunert

Author:Sarah Léonard & Christian Kaunert [Léonard, Sarah & Kaunert, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138212305
Google: lu4RvgAACAAJ
Goodreads: 31870042
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

5. Concluding remarks

The article tested solidarity and sharing as enshrined in Article 80 TFEU and envisaged in the Stockholm Programme and beyond, via a reality check: in view of the situation in Syria, it assessed the distributive effects of sharing mechanisms within the EU and addressed the corresponding challenges. Despite the existence of a body of law (CEAS) designed to be applied with uniformity and based on solidarity amongst EU states, reality reveals that before a humanitarian crisis and the duties it entails for the international community, Europe’s response is echoed in 28 individual policies, raising a lot of issues with regards to intra-EU solidarity and at the same time making its external contribution toward that crisis problematic. In addition to this horizontal deficit of solidarity a vertical one, between states and individuals in need of protection, is equally evident. The demand for a legally clear and operationally realistic sharing system both at an interstate and state-refugee level should thus be seriously considered. The above analysis reveals the not so unexpected fact that European states resort, by necessity, to a voluntary compliance according to perceived self-interest mainly due to the lack of a common understanding and comprehensive regulation of solidarity and sharing. The way that Syrian crisis triggers sharing practices in the EU confirms that interstate solidarity directly affects solidarity in its state-refugee dimension and the level of protection granted. CEAS and its implementation have still a long way to go in order to address both and meet the AFSJ goals on asylum. To what extent, solidarity through sharing (money, norms, people, expertise) may constitute a mandatory norm of conduct, requires further research. It simply suffices here to highlight the need for the EU to revisit solidarity as a concept with normative significance and not as a mere political rhetoric. A concrete understanding of what it entails for states toward other states as well as toward individuals should be an issue guiding policy and law-making priorities in the area of asylum, in the post Stockholm era (Commission, COM, 2014).

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