20 Years After Tampere's Agenda on 'Illegal Migration': Policy Continuity in Spite of Uninteded Consequences

• Author: Virginie Guiraudon
• Profession: CNRS research director at the Sciences Po Center for European Studies
• Pages: 147-156

147

11. 20 YEARS AFTER

TAMPERE’S AGENDA ON

“ILLEGAL MIGRATION”: POLICY

CONTINUITY IN SPITE OF

UNINTEDED CONSEQUENCES

Virginie Guiraudon

1. Introduction

In the rather polarized context of EU politics, immigration and

asylum have become a matter of “high politics” used by certain

government leaders to exacerbate tensions between member

states. e issue has received wide media attention since 2015 and

there have been several Council meetings dedicated to immigra-

tion and asylum. So commemorating the Tampere summit is not

just a step back in time, it takes place in a more discreet and con-

sensual context.

In 1999, a few highly specialized hauts fonctionnaires of the

Council Secretariat well versed in the EU culture of compromise

could prepare a summit and its conclusions with little interfer-

ences from their own institution or from the 15 member state gov-

ernments (Mangenot, 2003). It was a dierent moment than the

politicized character of the 2002 Seville summit when the “BAB

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