We are thrilled to invite contributions to the EU Migration and Asylum Law Conference, to be held on 23-24 April 2026, at Mykolas Romeris University, in Lithuania. The aim of the Conference is to enhance the academic debate on the preparations for the implementation of the new EU Migration and Asylum Pact, its challenges, the content and implications of new concepts in EU Asylum and Migration Law for individuals and the EU Member States’ national law.

Migration and asylum law have faced major developments in the past decade in the EU, frequently influenced by migration crises and populist political preferences. The challenges during the 2015 so called migration crisis, increasing trends of migration being instrumentalized at the EU’s external borders has triggered the EU to search for special instruments to address future situations and prompted revision of existing and emergence of new legal instruments. The new EU Migration and Asylum Pact (Pact) adopted in 2024 envisages a major reform that among other objectives aims to prevent migrants from reaching and crossing the EU external borders. The Pact will start to be applied in mid-2026, but a number of challenges and unanswered questions remain.

This new EU policy relies on new concepts of solidarity, pre-entry screening, ‘non-entry fiction’, ‘instrumentalization of migrants’ and others, that will have a significant impact on the status of protection seekers and migrants in Europe and beyond. These concepts need to be addressed, explained and unpacked to embark on their proper implementation to reach the objectives of the Pact without violating human rights standards and the rule of law. Besides the Pact, national legal developments demonstrate the emergence of new mechanisms (e.g. ‘external processing of asylum cases’) that only in a matter of time it will pave its way to European level. These European policies arise from political discourse surrounding the so-called crisis, both at the European level and within the Member States.  

The Conference will take stock of the preparations for the implementation of the Pact in selected EU Member States, highlight remaining challenges and discuss the approaches how to address it. It will focus on new and important directions in the field of migration and asylum related to the new concepts in the recent policy reform. It will bring together academics and practitioners to exchange, discover and debate the latest thinking and developments in the EU asylum and migration law and policy. It will serve a platform for advancing research and dissemination of policy impact in the field.

We welcome contributions on:

• Theoretical and conceptual foundations related to the new concepts in EU asylum and migration law (solidarity, pre-entry screening, ‘non-entry fiction’, ‘instrumentalization’, ‘externalisation’ and ‘return hubs’)
• Transdisciplinary critical perspectives and approaches on possible implications for individuals and states as a result of new concepts that blur the delimitation between asylum seekers and other migrants
• The political discourse on asylum and migration and its significant influence on the legal framework and policies in this area
• Legal and policy responses towards the extent such new concepts could be reconciled with refugee law and human rights standards and the values of the European Union
• The challenges of preparation for implementation of the Pact and its possible solutions.

 

The  Conference is organised in the framework of the Excellence Centres’ project “Reconciling new concepts of migration and asylum law with human rights standards in contemporary Europe (RENECO)” of Mykolas Romeris University, funded by the State Budget of Lithuania. It will also feature the results of the research project.

Scholars at all levels and from all regions are encouraged to apply. Submit your 500-word abstract by 30 March 2026 (EOB) via email (see below). Senior scholars will feature in the Conference program on 23 April, while doctoral students may present their papers on 24 April.

Presentations in person and online will be considered. Selected presenters may be considered for publication of their contributions in a leading international journal of Mykolas Romeris University. More information and submission to: EUAsylumpactconference@mruni.eu

 

Academic Organising Committee:

• Lyra Jakulevičienė
• Deyana Marcheva
• Evelina Staikova – Mileva
• Ildiko Otova
• Ulrike Brandl