The Nansen Passport and the EU Temporary Protection Directive: Reflections on Solidarity, Mobility Rights and the Future of Asylum in Europe

Abstract

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(1), 15-30 | European Forum Insight/Highlight of 30 March 2022 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Occurrences and recurrences of history: the refugee protection between what is reasonable and possible. - III. An inner glow to the dark side of the moon: beyond unequal solidarity. - IV. From inter-state solidarity to "dual voluntarism". - V. On the Nansen passport and temporary protection: re-linking protection with mobility rights. - VI. The future of asylum in Europe: between realpolitik and differential elements of constitutional capture. | (Abstract) The Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) is one of the most controversial pieces of EU legislation. Adopted back in 2001 and never implemented, it has been at the margins of EU migration and asylum policies until, on 3 March 2022, the Home Affairs Ministers of the EU27 reached an "historic agreement" on its activation. This Insight seeks to contextualise the activation of the TPD for those who flee from Ukraine under the broader horizon of collective responsibility for international protection. Departing from the rationale and constraints embedded in the historical development of refugee status - and underpinning the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) - this Insight explores the potential impact of the current situation at the Eastern borders of Europe on the balance between "what is reasonable and possible" within the framework of the EU asylum and immigration policies.

Keywords

• temporary protection directive
• principle of solidarity
• right to move
• new pact on immigration and asylum
• nansen passport
• war in ukraine