EU Mobility Partnerships: The ‘Most Innovative And Sophisticated Tool’ of European Migration Policy?

In 2005, the EU launched the Global Approach to Migration as an overarching framework to foster a common and comprehensive European migration policy. Within this framework, Mobility Partnerships between EU member states and third countries were supposed to better link migration and development and to foster a more efficient and coherent EU policy. The European Commission considered Mobility Partnerships to be the most comprehensive instrument for managing migration relations between the EU and third countries in its neighborhood. This brief describes this instrument and its background, critically reviews the experiences with currently running pilot partnerships, draws conclusions, and provides recommendations for further political action.