Judicial Review of the EU's Informal Migration Instruments - Admissibility in the case of the EU-Tunisia MoU

Year 2024, Volume: 23 Issue: 2, 361 - 391, 15.12.2024

Emriye Özlem Şeker

https://doi.org/10.32450/aacd.1452419

Abstract

The accountability of the EU in external migration management has become increasingly challenging due to the widespread use of informal instruments. Since the Amsterdam Treaty, the EU has exercised this competence mainly through readmission agreements. However, due to the urgency of the post-2015 migration crisis, coupled with the procedural and legal constraints of readmission agreements and the need for flexibility, soft law sources such as the EU-Turkey Statement (2016) have been favoured over hard law sources like readmission agreements. Judicial review of informal instruments has only been tested in the EU-Turkey Statement, where the CJEU dismissed the case at the admissibility stage. This article aims to assess the potential avenues for judicial review of the EU's informal migration instruments. It does so by examining the possible cases under EU law concerning the EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding (2023) from a procedural perspective. It concludes that the current criteria regarding the status of applicants under action for annulment and the difficulty of initiating national proceedings under the preliminary ruling procedure complicate litigation before the CJEU. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reform the procedural rules of the CJEU in light of the ever-increasing use of informal migration instruments.

Keywords

EU migration law, informalisation, soft law, accountability, actions for annulment

AB’nin İnformel Göç Araçlarının Hukukî Denetimi - AB-Tunus Mutabakatına İlişkin Davaların Kabul Edilebilirliği

Abstract

Avrupa Birliği'nin (AB) dış göç yönetimi alanındaki hukuki sorumluluğu, informel araçların yaygın kullanımı nedeniyle giderek daha fazla sorgulanmaktadır. Amsterdam Antlaşması’ndan itibaren AB bu alandaki yetkisini geri kabul antlaşmaları ile kullanmaktaydı. Ancak, 2015 sonrası göç krizinin aciliyeti, geri kabul anlaşmalarının prosedürel ve hukuki kısıtları ile esneklik ihtiyacı sebepleriyle Türkiye ile AB arasındaki 18 Mart Mutabakatı (2016) gibi informel araçlar mevcut hukuki kaynaklar yerine tercih edilmektedir. Bu araçların yargısal denetimi sadece Türkiye örneğinde test edilmiştir ve ABAD kabul edilebilirlik aşamasında davayı reddetmiştir. Bu makale, AB'nin gayri resmi göç araçlarının yargısal denetiminin olası yollarını değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu değerlendirme AB ile Tunus arasındaki Mutabakat Zaptı (2023)’na karşı gidilebilecek yargısal yolları usuli açıdan incelenerek yapılacaktır. İptal davası kapsamında davacıların statüsüne ve ön karar prosedürü kapsamında ulusal dava açmaya ilişkin mevcut kriterlerin bu araçları ABAD önünde getirmeyi zorlaştırdığı sonucuna varılmıştır. Dolayısıyla, informel araçların kullanımındaki artış nedeniyle, ABAD’ın usul kurallarını reform etme ihtiyacı bulunmaktadır.

Keywords

AB göç hukuku, informelleşme, esnek hukuk, hukuki sorumluluk, iptal davası

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