The European Union’s migration crisis management following the Arab Spring

Abstract

The outbreaks of protests in North Africa and the Middle East (MENA) in the wake of 2011, did not only overthrow decades-long authoritarian regimes but also revealed a fragmented opposition to such regimes among European Member States (MSs) which led to uncertainty and insecurities in the Euro-Mediterranean Neighbourhood. With such occurrences at the Union’s backdoor, the challenges imposed by the Arab Spring were significant not only to the Mediterranean neighbourhood but also to the European Union (EU) as a bloc. With the aim of shaping politics in the neighbourhood and maintain stability and security, European institutions together with MSs sought to carry out policy reforms within the Union with the aim of supporting the uprising societies in their journey towards democracy. In such context, this dissertation aims to pinpoint deficiencies within the EU’s foreign policy and crisis management framework, with the ultimate objective of unravelling the inadequacies in the Union’s response to the Arab uprisings. This dissertation will consider various views of academics and reactions to the Union’s response to highlight a specific facet of the EU’s response to an ongoing crisis with particular emphasis on the ensuing migration crisis. Migration being one of the most controversial issues on the EU’s agenda, lead to the exacerbation of diverging views that characterised the EU’s policymaking process which oftentimes hinders decisive action and deliver half-baked proposals that leave both EU citizens as well as the international community apprehensive and dissatisfied.