EuroMeSCo is now opening calls for researchers to take part in the next edition of Joint Study Groups.

The EuroMeSCo Joint Study Groups 2026 will be made up of four Authors, including a Coordinator, who will jointly produce a Policy Study over a period of 6-7 months. Interested researchers may apply as Author or as Author and Coordinator to each Joint Study Group. In both cases, they will have to complete the online form and submit their application by Sunday 11 January 2026, 23:59 CET.

Here is a brief description of the rationale of this Joint Study Group:

Migration agendas in the Euro-Mediterranean: Aligning visions and strategies

In 2026, the entry into force of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and the start of the Pact for the Mediterranean implementation will open a new phase in Euro-Mediterranean migration governance. While the Pact on Migration and Asylum reforms the EU’s internal rules on asylum, border procedures, returns and solidarity, its external dimension calls for “mutually beneficial partnerships” with countries of origin and transit and a stronger whole-of-route approach; the Pact for the Mediterranean seeks to build a Common Mediterranean Space through three pillars, people, sustainable and integrated economies, and security, preparedness and migration management, linking cooperation on jobs, energy, connectivity and investment with migration control and mobility.

At the same time, demographic projections point to a shrinking working-age population in the EU and still significant, though gradually converging, youth cohorts in many Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. Think tanks and international organisations underline that Europe’s labour markets are likely to need sustained inflows of workers, while irregular arrivals across the Mediterranean are shaped by restrictive policies, geopolitical shocks and economic fragilities in the region. In this evolving context, the way in which the EU and its Southern partners operationalise both pacts, in terms of mobility schemes, funding priorities, institutional arrangements and rights safeguards, will critically influence migration patterns and cooperation.

This Joint Policy Study would take a prospective and scenario-based approach to Euro-Mediterranean migration, exploring how current policy choices could shape future dynamics. It could elaborate on:

• Demographics and migration potential: how projected population trends in the EU and Mediterranean regions may influence migration pressures and opportunities, and what these scenarios imply for labour markets, social protection systems and education on both shores.
• Mobility schemes and mutual benefits: options to better connect EU and national labour migration schemes, Talent Partnerships and circular migration frameworks with real labour market needs, skills development, reintegration, and portable social rights, including social security and access to services.
• The external dimension and Euro-Mediterranean partnerships: how the external dimension of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Pact for the Mediterranean interact in practice, including the balance between border control, anti-smuggling and returns on the one hand, and rights-based approaches, protection safeguards and meaningful mobility opportunities on the other.
• Funding strategies and development–migration linkages: the prospective impact of using NDICI-Global Europe and other external instruments to pursue migration objectives, including the risks that cutting or redirecting development aid for deterrence may undermine livelihoods and increase incentives for irregular migration, as highlighted by recent evaluations and civil society analyses.
• Institutions and governance of migration: how institutional fragmentation and competing mandates (between EU institutions, agencies and member states, as well as within partner countries) affect the design and implementation of Euro-Mediterranean migration cooperation, and what reforms or coordination mechanisms could make governance more coherent and future-oriented.
• Burden-sharing and political sustainability within the EU: how the new solidarity mechanisms under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum might work in practice, what forms of support EU member states are likely to provide to frontline countries, and how different burden-sharing arrangements could affect the Union’s ability to uphold rights, manage borders and sustain cooperation with Southern partners over time.

Proposals are expected to adopt a forward-looking perspective, using quantitative projections, qualitative scenarios, comparative case studies or policy simulations to explore how migration between the EU and its Southern Neighbours may evolve under different configurations of the Pact for the Mediterranean and the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum.

See the EuroMeSCo Joint Study Groups 2026 Terms of Reference for more information.