Sovereignty of Member States in New European Pact for Migration and Asylum

Abstract

The author of the article attempts to analyze the consequences for Member States’ sovereignty arising from the European asylum system reform and harmonization proposed in September 2020 by the European Commission. The author believes that so-called solidarity mechanism, however designed with intention of burden sharing and help, de facto has the potential to become migrant relocation mechanism. That argument is already being raised by Member States that are opposing the European Commission’s proposal. According to them, the proposal violates rules guaranteeing Member States’ rights to determine volumes of admissions of the third country nationals, explicitly expressed in the Treaty on the European Union. The author also notices that decision-making power on the relocations is transferred to the Commission, leaving limited flexibility in gesture of Member States. Without being opposed to subsidiarity principle itself, the article questions whether the details of the Commission’s proposal are not actually against the principle and certain elements, like effective return, are not better achieved at the national level. In the research procedure, a method of critical analysis of the content of studies and the available sources was used.