From the EU-12 to the EU-27: Agreements linked to readmission concluded by the EU Member States with third countries

_{Source: MIREM, © EUI
Other types of bilateral agreements/deals include memoranda of understanding, exchanges of letters, and police cooperation agreements including a clause on readmission.}

The above graph shows that a whole spectrum of formal and informal agreements addressing the readmission issue has been emerging since the creation of the EU-12 in 1986 to the EU-27 in January 2007. Formal readmission agreements constitute just one pattern of cooperation. In other words, an inventory of all the bilateral readmission agreements concluded between each EU member state and third countries would not suffice to illustrate the various mechanisms and cooperative instruments that have emerged to sustain the removal of illegally staying third-country nationals.

The sharp increase in the number of bilateral readmission agreements reflects the growing importance that the issue of readmission has acquired in the international relations of the EU member states. France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain are the most involved in formal readmission agreements and in ongoing negotiations with third countries on this matter. Indeed, in January 2007, more than half of the total number of agreements linked to readmission were concluded by these five member states. Their share was even higher a few years before the 2004 EU enlargement.

The significant growth in the number of bilateral readmission agreements also illustrates the responsiveness of various third countries to the EU member states' call for such agreements. Countries in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe have had concrete incentives to cooperate with various EU member states, at a bilateral level, either because of their candidate country status (for example, Macedonia) or as part of their negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (for example, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina). Similarly, for those Eastern European countries longing to keep the European door open, even though they have no clear long-term prospect of EU membership (for example, Ukraine and Moldova), substantial progress has also been made on readmission talks and visa facilitations.

In 2007, the total number of bilateral agreements linked to readmission concluded between the EU member states and third countries slightly decreased as a result of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania into the EU.

An analysis based on the geographical distribution of the agreements shows that most formal readmission agreements have been concluded with non-EU countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, whereas more than two thirds of the informal agreements linked to readmission (that is, memoranda of understanding, exchanges of letters, police cooperation agreements including a clause on readmission and other deals) have been concluded with countries in the South and East Mediterranean and Africa, including the Maghreb countries.