In 2015, the European Union (EU) was faced with a collective challenge: the Migrant Crisis. This crisis, which saw over one million refugees and migrants reach the EU, exposed the inadequacies of the EU's current incrementalist approach to policy-making. Thomas Kuhn's (2019) theory of grand theories of European integration highlights the inability of incrementalism to address the complex challenges of the EU, such as the 2015 Migrant Crisis. Similarly, Schmidt (2012) notes the inadequacies of incrementalism, arguing that it fails to take into account the full range of interests, perspectives, and goals of all European nations. This essay will explore the debate surrounding the 2015 Migrant Crisis, arguing that the inability of the EU to reach a consensus about a migration policy is the result of failed incrementalism.
The 2015 Migrant Crisis was the result of a collective failure of the EU nations to address the common challenge of migration. This inability to reach a consensus on migration policy highlights the failure of incrementalism as the prevalent approach. The varying approaches taken by individual countries to the influx of migrants revealed the lack of a unified response to the issue. Academic literature, such as Kuhn (2019) and Schmidt (2012), suggests that the EU's failure to reach a consensus on migration policy is due to the lack of a unified approach to the issue. Furthermore, Ryan (2019) and João Estevens (2018) further illustrate the lack of a unified response to the migrant crisis, as individual countries adopted different strategies to address the influx of migrants. This collective failure of the EU nations to address the common challenge of migration ultimately revealed the EU's inability to reach a consensus on migration policy, further highlighting the failure of incrementalism as the prevalent approach.
The 2015 Migrant Crisis revealed the ineffectiveness of the EU's incrementalist approach to policy-making, as the EU was unable to reach a consensus on a unified migration policy. Over a million migrants and refugees entered the EU during the crisis, and the EU's failure to respond to the influx in a timely and effective manner highlighted the inadequacies of its current approach. Furthermore, the lack of agreement between member states on how to address the crisis further demonstrated the failure of incrementalism as the prevalent approach to policy-making in the EU. This inability to reach a consensus about a migration policy is the result of failed incrementalism, as evidenced by the 2015 Migrant Crisis. This crisis has shown that the EU must reevaluate its approach to policy-making if it is to effectively address future crises.
The 2015 Migrant Crisis further exposed the ineffectiveness of the EU's incrementalist approach to policy-making, as the lack of a unified response to the crisis demonstrated the inadequacy of the consensus-building process. This approach relies on the agreement of all member states in order to pass legislation, yet the EU was unable to reach a consensus on a unified migration policy. This lack of consensus was evidenced by the limited response to the crisis, as the EU was unable to agree on a comprehensive solution to the influx of migrants. This failure to reach a consensus further highlighted the inadequacy of the incrementalist approach as the predominant method of policy-making. Consequently, the 2015 Migrant Crisis revealed the EU's inability to reach a consensus on migration policy, further emphasizing the failure of incrementalism as the prevalent approach.
Thomas Kuhn's (2019) theory of grand theories of European integration further highlights the inability of incrementalism to address the complex challenges of the EU. In his article, Kuhn (2019) argues that the EU is too complex for incrementalism to be effective, as it fails to take into account the diverse interests of the member states. He further explains that the EU's lack of a unified identity and the presence of multiple competing identities make it difficult to reach a consensus on a single policy. This was made evident in the 2015 Migrant Crisis, in which the EU was unable to reach a unified agreement on a migration policy despite the urgency of the situation. As a result, the EU was unable to effectively address the crisis, further demonstrating the failure of incrementalism as the prevalent approach. This theory of grand theories of European integration supports the thesis that the inability of the EU to reach a consensus about a migration policy is the result of failed incrementalism.
Building on Thomas Kuhn's (2019) theory of grand theories of European integration, Schmidt (2012) further emphasizes the inadequacies of incrementalism in the context of the 2015 Migrant Crisis. He argues that this approach fails to take into account the full range of interests, perspectives, and goals of all European nations, making it unsuitable for addressing the complex challenges of the EU. Moreover, Schmidt (2012) contends that incrementalism is not an effective way to ensure the legitimacy of the EU, as it does not provide a comprehensive solution to the issues the EU faces. This is especially evident in the 2015 Migrant Crisis, as incrementalism does not provide a comprehensive solution that considers the interests of all involved. This further highlights the failure of incrementalism as the predominant approach to the 2015 Migrant Crisis, as it fails to consider the full range of interests, perspectives, and goals of all European nations.
In conclusion, the 2015 Migrant Crisis revealed the EU's inability to reach a consensus on migration policy, further highlighting the failure of incrementalism as the prevalent approach. This crisis demonstrated the inadequacies of the EU's current incrementalist approach to policy-making, as the EU was unable to reach a consensus on a unified migration policy. Thomas Kuhn's (2019) theory of grand theories of European integration and Schmidt's (2012) critique of incrementalism both emphasize the inability of incrementalism to address the complex challenges of the EU, such as the 2015 Migrant Crisis. This crisis serves as a reminder of the need for a more comprehensive and unified approach to policy-making in the EU, one that takes into account the interests, perspectives, and goals of all European nations. The 2015 Migrant Crisis was a collective failure of the EU nations to address the common challenge of migration, and it is essential that the EU learns from this experience and works towards a more unified and effective policy-making process.
