Sources of Law,Regulatory Processes and Enforcement Mechanisms in EU Migration Policy: The Slow Decline of National Sovereignty

As a relatively new area of EU law, the governance and enforcement of EU migration policies continues to differ in many respects from other EU policy areas. The quasi-absence of rights of third country nationals under EU primary law as well as the previously intergovernmental nature of the area of migration policies have led to a crucial importance of general principles of law, in particular the principle of effectiveness. Governance processes are characterized by a favouring of non-binding soft law mechanisms, the flexible application of common policy decisions and by efforts to ‘externalize’ migration management and control functions. Finally, challenges in the application of the preliminary ruling procedure have accentuated the importance of Commission infringement proceedings and the principle of effectiveness for the effective enforcement of EU migration law.