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Evaluation of the Common European Asylum System under Pressure and Recommendations for Further Development

The CEASEVAL project has been completed.

It ended in November 2019.
This website will remain open for a further 5 years as a record of research carried out during the project.

Since 2015, migration to and within Europe has challenged the adequacy of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This has affected the implementation of both the CEAS and national asylum systems and called further harmonisation into question. Harmonisation is not a fixed term but incorporates varied meanings and practices. In legal terms, harmonisation has been explained as an approximation process towards minimum standards. In political terms, harmonisation focuses on policy convergence, of which legal harmonisation is only one of many mechanisms of convergence. CEASEVAL determined what kind of harmonisation and solidarity is possible and necessary.

CEASEVAL set out to:
  1. Carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the CEAS
  2. Analyse harmonisation going beyond formal institutions
  3. Consider actors engaged at local, national and European levels
  4. Explain the success and failure of coordinated action between these varied actors
CEASEVAL had four objectives:
  1. Combine multiple disciplines in order to explore different perspectives of the CEAS
  2. Develop and test a new theoretical framework of multilevel governance of the CEAS
  3. Provide a critical evaluation of the CEAS by identifying and analysing discrepancies in the transposition and incorporation of European standards in the area of asylum in domestic legislation as well as differences in their implementation
  4. Elaborate new policies by considering different alternatives of implementing a common European asylum system