by Stefano Gardiman
One of the most pressing and relevant issues facing the European Union (EU) is the large influx of migrants entering the continent from the Middle East and Africa. Sudden waves of mass migration burden the economies of the EU member states by exhausting state resources such as health care, social services, and housing. In order to relieve the migratory burden placed upon certain EU member states such as Italy, Greece and Germany, the European Commission (EC) has implemented population quotas, which use a precise formula to determine how many migrants each EU member state must legally accept and support. This paper will analyze certain EC-proposed legislation pertaining to population quotas specifically, The Dublin III Regulation and Dublin IV Regulation proposal, The EU Turkey agreement, The Relocation and Resettlement Scheme, The Return Directive, Qualification Directive, Asylum Directive, the Reception directive, and in addition will evaluate the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) recent decision to uphold the EC’s right to impose mandatory quotas on its member states. Upon completion of the critical analysis of the legislation, the paper will attempt to answer the question, Are the European Commission’s population quotas helping to resolve the migratory burden placed upon EU member states?
