Main issues in migration and integration today

This contribution was delivered on the occasion of the EUI State of the Union in Florence on 09 May 2013The right to free movement in the European Union is one of the core pillars of the EU, and one of the most distinctive characteristics of the European project. In that sense, the European Union is a unique area of free movement over the world. e area of free movement of persons presupposes the strengthening of cooperation, the abolition of internal borders and, therefore, the establishment of common standards to manage (and to cross) external borders. is was done on the basis of the Amsterdam Treaty, and it was easy to understand that a common European policy on migration and asylum had to be the next step to fulll the area of free movement. It was assumed that the elimination of internal borders should drive necessarily to the development of common immigration and asylum policies