The Creative Role of the European Council in the Area of Managing Asylum Migration and Return of Third-Country Nationals to Their Country of Origin in the Times of the Migration Crisis. Research on the Content of the EC’s Conclusions 2011–2017

The article analyses the conclusions of the European Council in the years 2011–2017 from the perspective of the implementation of the so-called principle of migration security priority in the area of EU’s return and asylum policy. In accordance with the theses of the current article, there exists an overarching principle of migration security priority, which is applicable at the level of the shaping of EU’s migration policy, whereas the European Council has a real infl uence on the shape and directions of the development of EU’s migration policy. In actual fact, the European Council performs the function of the creator within the sphere of asylum and return policy – develops programme guidelines, provides solutions to problems and proposes possible changes in the instruments of the law. The article presents the results of an in-depth analysis of the conclusions of the European Council with regard to the management of migration processes in the era of the migration crisis, which escalated in April 2015.