The Post-Enlargement Migration Space

This paper is a preliminary attempt to look at the link between the post EU enlargement migration space and the ongoing process of setting up a common EU immigration policy, which has entered its second phase with the ‘Hague Programme’ agreed upon in November 2004. Our main argumentation is built upon a series of juxtapositions resulting from the interrelation of the national and supranational level of the EU policymaking: ‘enlargement(s) and restrictions’, ‘visible and invisible borders’, ‘pendulum and pillar’ so as to define the area of Justice, Freedom and Security being implemented since the meeting of the European Council in Tampere in October 1999. The theoretical framework relies upon the ‘pendulum model’ developed by Helen Wallace while studying the EU policymaking process. The model shows how this process results in an uninterrupted oscillation between two dimensions of governance – national and supranational – particularly in the field of immigration where the prerogatives of national sovereignty are hard to be left behind. Our conclusive argument advances that the EU should involve all the qualified actors either from old, new members or neighbouring countries in an effective ‘open method of coordination’ while attempting at harmonising immigration and asylum policy.