The emerging architecture of EU asylum policy: insights into the administrative governance of the common European asylum system

Scratching beneath the superficial layer of the ongoing political and media debate, this contribution holistically analyses the content of the EU’s Common European Asylum System (CEAS), a notion that despite its centrality to the EU’s asylum policy lacks a precise definition. Beyond legislative harmonisation, I point to the central role of implementation, which should be viewed as an integral part of the system design, and critically assess the impact of the principle of solidarity and fair-sharing of responsibility. Thereafter, I examine the CEAS’s changing implementation modes, critically assessing to what extent they signal a passage towards an emerging integrated European administration. I also trace the relationship between the events of the 2015–2016 ‘refugee crisis’ and developments in the administrative architecture of the CEAS. I conclude by highlighting how Member State unilateralism and externalisation, i.e. the transfer of obligations to third countries, are increasingly taking centre stage and are operating as a parallel – or indeed even alternative – track to harmonisation and intra-EU cooperation on asylum matters.