L’Agenzia dell’Unione europea per l’asilo come strumento di armonizzazione: potenzialità, limiti e prospettive

Abstract

The European Union Asylum Agency, as reshaped by the 2021 reform, plays a central role in the institutional response to the crisis of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The strengthening of this Agency is an alternative to the centralisation of the asylum procedure at the supranational level on the one hand, and to the full harmonisation of national asylum and reception systems on the other. Similarly to the last reform of the Frontex Agency, the transition from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) aims to create a level playing field on asylum through centralised monitoring and crisis management mechanisms, as well as interpretation tools and the sharing of information, methodologies, and good practice. In this sense, the reform of the EUAA pursues a “bottom-up” harmonisation in the field of international protection, relying on administrative and judicial integration to circumvent the pitfalls of both the legislative harmonisation of the SECA and regulatory strategies based on the presumption of mutual trust between the Member States. This paper proposes a reflection on the potential, limits, and prospects for the development of such an approach within the legal framework of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, focusing in particular on the balance between the efficiency of cooperation and the effective protection of fundamental rights.