The European Court of Auditors (ECA) launched an audit on Tuesday 28 July of European return policies, the results of which should be published next summer.
While a return policy should be an important pillar of the future Pact on Asylum and Migration, the current enforcement rate of decisions to return migrants and readmit them to non-Member State is less than 40%.
As part of this assessment, the auditors will examine whether the measures adopted by the European Commission after 2015 have improved cooperation with priority non-Member States, explained the Court in a press release. “Every year since 2008, an average of half a million foreign nationals have been ordered to leave the EU because they entered or stayed illegally. However, only 38% of them return to their country of origin or to the last country through which they travelled before entering the EU. This average falls below the 30% figure for returns to non-European countries”.
In 2015, the European Commission published an EU Action Plan on returning migrants, which is followed up with several actions. The EU currently has 24 or 25 agreements or readmission arrangements with non-Member States, some of which are still poorly implemented. The Pact could insist on new ways of enforcing them. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)