Common EU migration policy will be hard to achieve

Significance

The EU is still struggling to formulate a coordinated response to the migration crisis, but it has managed to make significant cuts in illegal immigration by tightening control of its external borders and reducing the number of irregular crossings of the Mediterranean.

Impacts

• An EU-Africa summit in November will review measures to prevent people from trying to come to Europe in the first place.
• The number of people crossing the Mediterranean has fallen, but for each individual attempting the journey the risk of dying has increased.
• The sense of being abandoned by other EU countries could boost Euroscepticism in the run-up to next year’s election in Italy.
• Conflicts over migration policy are likely to deepen the east-west divide within the EU.