Integration as a two-way process in the EU? Assessing the Relationship between the European Integration Fund and the Common Basic Principles on Integration

This report examines the nature, the limits and potential of the principle of integration as a two-way process of mutual accommodation between migrants and the receiving societies. It assesses the extent to which this key principle, which lays at the foundation of the EU framework on integration, is implemented in practice by investigating how it informs national programmes supported by the European integration fund. The report stems from research undertaken by CEPS for the project “Integration as a two-way process in the EU? Assessing the European Integration Fund and the Common Basic Principles on Integration”. The research aims at identifying ways to enhance the use and oversight of European funding for the development of integration policies and activities at the national, regional and local levels. The authors put forward recommendations for evidence-based policy-making within the EU framework on integration and for improving the use of European funding for integration measures at national level. The recommendations include concrete steps to ensure that European funding primarily serves to put into practice a European approach to integration that is understood as a two-way process in which not only migrants but also the receiving societies – including civil society, social partners and multi-level public authorities – participate and interact. Sergio Carrera is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Justice and Home Affairs Programme at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Anaïs Faure Atger is a researcher at CEPS.