Since the refugee crisis of the mid-2010s, migration into Europe has become the chief political hot-potato in the EU. While some see the influx of economic migrants and refugees as a threat, others advocate in favour of migration in the interests of the European Union both economically and socially. The flaws of the Dublin system having been laid bare by the crisis, migration has shot to the forefront of EU debate.

National-level responses to such challenges vary from Member State to Member State. In Hungary, closed borders caused tensions with Croatia; in the United Kingdom, migration took center-stage in the Brexit debate, and in Bulgaria, since 2014 a fence has been erected along the Turkish border to reduce immigration. But is there a better way? Should Europe try to resolve the situation on a collective basis? And if so, what role should the European Union formally have in such a solution?

In the framework of the EP4U project, TEPSA teamed up with Evelina Staikova from the Department of Political Sciences of New Bulgarian University to organise a University Debate on the EU’s Migration Policy. The event took place on November 2 at 17:00 CET (18:00 local time). Dr. Evelina Staykova is the Head of the Department of Political Sciences of the New Bulgarian University, and moderated the discussion between Radan Kanev MEP, Ilin Stanev from the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria, Dafinka Sydova from the Department of National and International Security, and Polina Hristova from the Bulgarian Youth Red Cross.

The event took place in Bulgarian. It started with a presentation on EU Migration Policy “in a nutshell” before moving on to a panel discussion.