by Panagiotis Nikas, Founding Director of ZEUXIS, Athens On 28th July, we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Refugee Convention (the Convention). Its core concept is the protection of every human being who fears persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Non-refoulement is a legal obligation…
by François Thomas, President of SOS MEDITERRANEE France, Marseille has been the president of SOS MEDITERRANEE France since June 2019. He holds a master’s degree in international transport and is a certified captain and chief engineer in the French Merchant Navy. Acting as marine consultant, he has spent over 40 years in the maritime sector,…
by Andrea Quaden, humanitarian aid worker, Syria I have been working to the best of my abilities with and for the displaced children, women and men of this world for more than a decade now. From Germany to Turkey and Syria to Iraq, the Mediterranean Sea and back to Syria. There is one ultimate truth in…
by Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Warsaw Over the last five years Frontex has become one of the most dynamic EU agencies. The scale and speed of Frontex growth has no precedent. When the agency started to operate in 2005, its budget was of just €6m with about…
by Mariam Traore Chazalnoel, Senior Policy Officer, and Dina Ionesco, Head of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division, International Organization for Migration (IOM)1, Geneva The impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on migration are felt on every continent. The linkages between migration, environment and climate change are complex. People might migrate directly due…
by Stefanie Buzmaniuk, Head of Publications, and Ramona Bloj, Head of Studies, Robert Schuman Foundation, Paris In terms of migration policy, the EU has a shared competence. Its intervention depends on the application of the principle of subsidiarity and is closely linked to the creation of the Schengen area. The events since 2015 and the…
Interview with Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Luxembourg, and Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), Berlin While the European Commission is proposing a fresh start on migration and asylum policy, striking a new balance between responsibility and solidarity of EU Member States, the…
Interview with Dr Dirk Wössner, CEO, CompuGroup Medical, Koblenz The European: Dr Wössner, you became the Chief Executive Officer of CompuGroup Medical (CGM) in 2021, at a time when the company’s state-of-the-art software is supporting Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide. Even more than before the pandemic, the whole world is now calling for connections between people, facilities,…
On 11th September (9/11) all American soldiers will have left Afghanistan. Joe Biden, the new US President, has followed the policy set out by his predecessor and his countrymen will surely thank him for it. Britain’s top officer however has voiced dismay at the announcement by the US President that Americans troops are to be…
by Christopher Eid, PhD student on European policy, France The search for closer relations between the European Union and the countries of the Mediterranean basin has taken the form of a Mediterranean partnership agreement (Gomez, 2018) which provides for cooperation in various fields and establishes an open global level of interaction, which includes integration. This…