Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation

The paper analyzes how the EU uses conditionalities and compensations to manage migration through partnerships with third countries. It introduces a typology of these partnerships—carrot and stick, work around, pick and choose, façade, and reversed—and finds that power asymmetries often lead to a focus on irregular migration and return over the legal mobility channels desired by partner countries.

• The EU's external approach to migration has shifted from the holistic partnership ambitions of the 1999 Tampere Conclusions toward a narrower focus on irregular migration and return, increasingly utilizing informal political instruments and the 'conditionality–compensation nexus'.
• The authors define the conditionality–compensation nexus from the EU perspective as a system where the EU requires a third country to accomplish specific tasks (conditions) to receive rewards (compensation), categorized as positive ('more for more') or negative ('less for less').
• Compensations provided by the EU are categorized into three non-exclusive types: political (e.g., increased association or recognition), legal (e.g., visa liberalisation or membership), and financial (e.g., development aid or EUTF funding).
• Power asymmetries allow the EU to impose terms on weaker states, often through 'soft law' or non-binding agreements (like the Joint Way Forward with Afghanistan) to bypass democratic oversight and accelerate readmission processes.
• Partner countries with high dependence on Official Development Assistance (ODA) relative to GNI, such as Afghanistan and Somalia, are more susceptible to EU financial conditionalities.
• Countries with significant remittance inflows or alternative economic partners (e.g., China in Nigeria) possess stronger bargaining power and are more likely to resist EU demands for legally binding readmission agreements.
• The paper identifies five distinct partnership 'approaches': 'carrot and stick' (financial conditioning), 'work around' (bilateral deals with Member States), 'pick and choose' (informal cooperation without formal agreements), 'façade' (symbolic agreements with poor implementation), and 'reversed' (partner country sets conditions).
• A consistent source of policy incoherence reported by partner countries is the EU's failure to provide meaningful legal migration pathways, which are often the primary interest of the third countries.

APA

Lebon-McGregor, E., Godin, M., Jumbert, M. G., Schweers, J., Tjønn, M. H., & Ike, N. (2022). Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/3b0bc471-f760-42e5-a3fe-9369a858cfcf/Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Lebon-McGregor, Elaine, Marie Godin, Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert, Julia Schweers, Mathias Hatleskog Tjønn, and Niels Ike. Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2022. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/3b0bc471-f760-42e5-a3fe-9369a858cfcf/Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lebon-McGregor |first1=Elaine |last2=Godin |first2=Marie |last3=Jumbert |first3=Maria Gabrielsen |last4=Schweers |first4=Julia |last5=Tjønn |first5=Mathias Hatleskog |last6=Ike |first6=Niels |title=Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=October 2022 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/3b0bc471-f760-42e5-a3fe-9369a858cfcf/Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lebonmcgregor2022comparative, author = {Lebon-McGregor, Elaine and Godin, Marie and Jumbert, Maria Gabrielsen and Schweers, Julia and Tjønn, Mathias Hatleskog and Ike, Niels}, title = {{Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2022}, month = oct, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/3b0bc471-f760-42e5-a3fe-9369a858cfcf/Comparative experiences of third-country cooperation.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }