Legal and policy relevance of EU mobility partnerships in Morocco and Cape Verde: the role of epistemic communities

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to better understand the role played by epistemic communities in the legal and policy relevance of Mobility Partnerships for third countries. I argue that the influence of epistemic communities on the legal and policy developments of a third country varies according to the context in which they operate. Epistemic communities benefitting from a certain authority over third countries or a certain form of ‘prestige’ will be more likely to be influential. However, third country’s agency should not be neglected as we can see that the most effective epistemic communities operate where the third country is willing to listen and respond to a specific need for support. The paper shows that we can only comprehend the role of epistemic communities in the relevance of Mobility Partnerships, if we take seriously the interests of third countries and understand the context in which Mobility Partnerships are being negotiated and implemented.

KEYWORDS:

• EU external migration policy
• Mobility Partnerships
• epistemic communities
• agency
• capacity building
• policy transfer

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the participants of the workshop ‘Europe’s Role in Global Migration Governance’ in Mainz (2019) for their preliminary guidance and Arne Niemann and Natascha Zaun for their continuous support and valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A list of interviews used in this paper can be found in Annex 1 and a full list of the 70 interviews is available upon request.

2 The annex of a Mobility Partnership includes a list of projects to be implemented under the instrument. Not all projects will ultimately be implemented but it aims at showing political will and potentially securing funding for a specific initiative.

3 Capacity Development can be provided to third countries by development aid. It is common that aid programmes assist both with drafting policies/legislation and with the development of administrative capacity.

4 For more information see: https://www.mieux-initiative.eu/en/ MIEUX is funded by the European Commission and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

5 ICMPD, https://www.icmpd.org/our-work/capacity-building/european-and-global-initiatives/mieux-iii/middle-east-north-africa/.