The new Return Directive proposed by the European Commission should be an opportunity to genuinely combat irregular immigration.

17 years after the Return Directive, which introduced harmonization in the treatment of third-country nationals who had illegally entered the territory of the European Union, the European Commission recommended, on March 11, new measures in the form of a regulation that will repeal the 2008 "Return" Directive.

The modification of the Return Directive is a necessity. Although it allowed for legal harmonization among European countries, it has proven ineffective in enabling the removal of persons in an irregular situation. One figure is particularly telling: less than 20% of expulsion decisions are currently enforced by the Member States.

What does the European Commission propose?

1 - Mutual recognition of return decisions, which will allow a Member State to recognize and directly enforce a return decision taken by another Member State, without having to initiate a new process.

2 - Clear rules for forced return: forced returns will be mandatory when a person in an irregular stay in the EU does not cooperate, flees to another Member State, or does not leave the EU territory within the set deadline.

3 - Stricter obligations for persons subject to a return decision, including the reduction or refusal of social benefits in case of non-cooperation by the person in an irregular situation.

4 - Administrative detention may be extended by Member States to up to 24 months, compared to 18 months currently.

5 - Return processes will systematically be followed by a request for readmission, with authorization for data transfer to third countries for readmission purposes.

6 - The introduction of return platforms with the legal possibility of sending persons in an irregular stay in the EU who have been subject to a final return decision to a third country, based on a bilateral agreement or arrangement at the EU level.

Some measures are moving in the right direction. However, the legislative path is still far from complete, with expected modifications in the European Parliament and then an agreement with the European Council. It should be recalled that the proposal to amend the Return Directive is not new. Already in 2018, a similar initiative was undertaken before failing in the face of a politically more reluctant parliament than the current one to seriously improve the return rate of third-country nationals in an irregular situation.

Other substantial points of improvement seem important to us at Empower Europe: deprioritize voluntary return in favor of forced return; rebuild Frontex to transform it into a genuine return and border control agency; prohibit any person who has irregularly crossed the European territory and then been refused entry from applying for a visa for 10 years (compared to 5 currently) or even permanently, as some Anglo-Saxon democracies do.

Finally, it is important to recall that the scope of application of the Return Directive by the members is broad and depends on each member country. The new version of the Return Directive will need to address the current problem of very heterogeneous application in the member countries.