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Border management

Commission presents draft for global counter-smuggling alliance /// New plans for using visas as leverage for deportation cooperation /// UK seeks greater migration control through Balkans states

Commission presents draft declaration for global counter-smuggling alliance

In a letter to delegations on 18 July 2025, the Danish Presidency presented the Commission’s draft Joint Declaration on the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling, to be unveiled at the alliance’s second conference in Brussels on 10 December 2025.

The draft declaration (pdf) puts a heavy emphasis on smuggling as a transnational crime, as well as the EU’s intention to marshal various agencies and international conventions to counter it.

Notably, the document emphasises a “whole of route” approach. A key part of the EU’s overall external migration control strategy, “whole of route” approaches, also known as “route-based” approaches, extend the EU’s policing powers into third countries to prevent peoples’ mobility at the periphery, long before they set a definite course for Europe.

The document also mentions the importance of data collection and sharing among the alliance, as well as information campaigns in countries of origin or transit intended to dissuade people from moving. It also discusses engaging with tech companies to remove content about smuggling from social media, and alludes to the EU’s efforts to put more pressure on commercial transport operators to engage in counter-irregular migration activities.

Commission outlines plan to use visas as leverage for deportation cooperation

With a new EU Visa Strategy due to be adopted by the end of 2025, a paper from the Commission to the Visa Working Party on 30 September 2025 presents various suggestions for how the new visa regime could be used to achieve the EU’s deportation aims.

Regarding the levers the EU can pull in “securing borders, managing migration, and promoting better cooperation with non-EU countries,” the paper (pdf) notes visa policy as particularly potent:

The EU's visa policy has emerged as a key instrument, not only facilitating the free movement of people, but also yielding significant geopolitical influence. With 9.7 million Schengen visas issued in 2024 and over 1.4 billion people from 61 countries benefiting from visa-exempt travel, the EU's visa policy plays a crucial role in promoting tourism, trade, and economic growth. Nevertheless, there is potential to use the EU visa policy even more strategically.

The document presents two main strategic goals: boosting the EU’s economic growth and competitiveness (which is not of interest for this bulletin), and a visa policy that reinforces EU security.

Proposed actions to this end include (among others):

• A new visa exemption/suspension system, with more flexible assessment criteria, more regular assessment of visa-free regimes, wider grounds for suspensions and faster processes for granting or withdrawing visa exemptions.
• More flexible Article 25a procedures, allowing for the mechanism to be invoked to cover a wider range of visas (rather than limited to short-stay tourist visas) and visa processes.
• Expanding the toolkit to include ad hoc responses and allow visa measures to be used in response to a lack of cooperation in wider areas such as security.
• Further targeted measures to restrict the movement of people from countries with “severely deteriorated relations” with the EU.
• Frontex training and support to member states to guide implementation of the visa policy.

Overall, the document makes it clear the EU intends to use visa policy as one of its main tools in securing cooperation on deportations, and appears to be considering its use in other areas of cooperation and diplomacy as well.

UK seeks greater migration control through Balkans states

The UK-hosted Berlin Process summit in mid-October aimed at increasing the border control abilities of Balkan states.

Running parallel to the EU’s ambitions for tightening borders in the Balkans, the summit was hosted by the UK. The stated aim was to “help deliver on the UK government’s strategy to strengthen borders, smash the gangs, and get those with no right to be here returned to their countries.” It comes at the same time as the UK claims to be developing a “world-first” sanctions regime against smugglers.

The UK has in recent years courted Balkans nations, looking for its own version of the EU’s “return hub” schemes (though the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, previously criticised the Rwanda scheme of his Conservative predecessors). Starmer has praised Italy’s Albania scheme, and is rumoured to have attempted to secure a similar deal. In late October, the prime minister of Kosovo said discussions were taking place for a return hub-type deal there.