612 Revista del Instituto Español de Estudios Estratégicos Núm. 2 / 2013 acquis, which was incorporated into the main body of EU law with the Amsterdam Treaty). Lavenex and Uçarer90 use the policy transfer framework to examine how the EU influences neighbouring non-Member State countries, providing them with incentives for adapting their policies to those of the EU. The forms of adapting these policies include unilateral emulation, adaptation to externalisation and the transfer of policy through conditionality. Furthermore, the degree of alignment or mismatch between the policies of the EU and the internal arrangements in the third country, national patterns of interest in the third country and the costs of non-adaptation for third countries have an impact on the method and effectiveness of the policy transfer process. The EU has used the principle of “Conditionality” to encourage compliance. This is basically a reward system whereby the EU rewards countries of origin that comply with its conditions and withholds the reward if they fail to do so. This strategy is often used by the EU to encourage third countries involved in accession negotiations to adapt to the community acquis. However, for conditionality to be successful, it must meet certain requirements. Firstly, the standard to be transferred must be determined and clear; secondly, the value attributed to the expected reward and the speed with which this will be obtained and, finally, the promise/threat of the EU has to be credible. Lavenex and Uçarer91 provide examples of the mechanisms used by the EU to transfer policy to non-Member States. Countries can be classified into five groups, depending on their link with the EU. For example, Turkey and the Balkan countries, which have pre-accession agreements with the EU, have increased cooperation with the Union on migration policy. Adaptation to the community acquis in the areas of asylum and immigration has become an integral part of preparations for Turkey’s accession to the EU. The situation is similar for the countries of former Yugoslavia. In addition, the changes made to the pre-accession agreements with these countries are similar to those of new Member States. The latter found themselves forced to adapt to the migration acquis in order to accede to the Union. The decision by third countries to implement the community acquis requires compliance with “inappropriate conditions”, and making accession conditional upon the transfer of policy carries a huge price, should it fail to do so. It therefore has a “numbing” effect on the opposition at home. Adaptation to the community acquis by third countries is important for the EU as it enables it to control migration flows from these third countries more effectively. The objective is basically to prevent and divert the movement of people within the EU, but it has given rise to the creation of a “buffer zone” around the Union.92 To summarise, the Schengen framework and EU enlargement appear to have affected the development of the external dimension of EU immigration policy. Firstly, the abolition of internal borders within EU territory has made nation states more vulnerable to the consequences 90 LAVENEX, Sandra and UÇARER, Emek, op cit., 2004, pp. 417-443. 91 idem 92 LINDSTRÖM, Channe, op cit., 2005, 587-605
REVISTA IEEE 2
To see the actual publication please follow the link above