The Bratislava Declaration: "Never Again"

September 26 2016 - Sandrino Smeets

European leaders recently met in Bratislava to sift through the ashes of Brexit and chart the organization's way forward. Migration and asylum dominated the agenda with their Declaration vowing "[n]ever to allow return to uncontrolled flows of last year". This week we asked Sandrino Smeets - an expert on EU Council deliberations, to tell us how European countries came to this position and what this Declaration will mean. He explores the inter-governmental jockeying taking place behind the show of unity, and offers the sobering thought that the document may shape EU migration policy for years to come.