Il ruolo dell’Agenzia dell’Unione Europea per l’asilo nel processo di allargamento ai Balcani occidentali. Tra esternalizzazione del diritto di asilo e sostegno nella procedura di adesione all’UE

Following the transformation of EASO into the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), the EUAA’s mandate of cooperation with Third Countries has been extended, and its means of carrying out such cooperation better defined within the framework of working arrangements concluded with Third Country authorities. In this context, there has also been an increasing involvement of the EUAA in the EU enlargement process to the Western Balkans, with a view to aligning the asylum systems of these countries with EU standards. Against the backdrop of this expansion, the present contribution intends to investigate the EUAA’s influence on the asylum systems of said Third Countries. This in order to understand whether the relationship between the two is aimed at strengthening cooperation with national administrations in line with EU standards or, rather, represents a further source of asylum externalisation (or, again, whether it is not possible to differentiate between the two remits/outcomes)