From Political to Migration-Based Conditionality in the EU Development Policy: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’?

The external dimension of the EU migration policy relies to a large extent on its development policy – or what remains of it – as a way of fostering what are often called ‘mutually beneficial partnerships’ between the EU and non-EU Member States. While political conditionality remains a fundamental axis of the EU’s external relations in particular towards African countries, a curious ‘twist’ of events has led to the emergence of ‘migration-based’ conditionality, especially in the aftermath of the 2015/2016 ‘refugee crisis’. Broadly speaking, the notion of conditionality can be defined as the fact for the EU to leverage different instruments – whether political, economic or financial – to lead non-EU Member States – otherwise labelled as ‘third countries’ – to comply with certain norms. In the context of the EU development policy, conditionality traditionally relates to human rights, democracy and good governance. In the context of migration, however, these norms are mostly connected with the readmission of nationals – or non-nationals and related concerns. While migration-based conditionality might appear as a deviation from what would be a more ‘righteous’ and legitimate form of conditionality, this contribution intends to argue that this is incorrect. Through a critical review of the EU development policy going back to its colonial roots and in particular, the evolution of conditionality as a key dimension thereof, this chapter intends to show that migration-based conditionality stems from political conditionality and not that it strays from it.