Frontex and Asylum Office: Legal Oversight by the Court of Justice?

Roundtable organised by organised by the European Papers – Jean Monnet Network and the Research Centre Immigration & Asylum Law at the University of Konstanz.


Location and Date

Friday, 20 May 2022 from 9am until 4.30pm at the ‘Bischofsvilla’ (bishop’s villa), in the premises of the ‘Centre of Cultural Inquiry’ (Zentrum für Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung), which are located in Otto-Adam-Straße 5, 78467 Konstanz, Germany. 

Participation 

The workshop will take place in physical presence to support a lively debate; external participants who are interested in joining the discussion are invited to contact Kilian Umbach (kilian.umbach@uni-konstanz.de). For information on how to reach Konstanz, see the travel information (Konstanz can be reached easily, as the city has a direct train connection with Zurich Airport).

Programme

Frontex and the Asylum Agency have seen exponential growth in recent years. While the mandate of Frontex was revised in 2016 and 2019, the new EUAA regulation entered into force at the beginning of 2022. Both mandates give the agencies enhanced  operational powers; they are currently hiring abundant new staff, to be deployed in situations of urgency at the external borders. Controversies over the potential complicity of Frontex in illegal pushback practices and the involvement of the Asylum Agency in administrative decision-making in Greek hotspots illustrate the importance of legal oversight. The workshop will confront this challenge head-on. Experts from across Europe will convene at the University of Konstanz on Friday, 20 May 2022 to discuss the role of the Court of Justice. The programme of the roundtable can be downloaded here.