As mentioned in the Council Decision of 14 May 2008 establishing a European Migration Network, the EMN’s objective shall be to meet the information needs of Community institutions and of Member States’ authorities and institutions on migration and asylum with a view to supporting policymaking in these areas. In this context, the staff of the Belgian Contact Point of the EMN met with the Cabinet of Nicole de Moor to present the added value and resources of the EMN, to inform them about current work and publications and to enquire about key information needs in the field of asylum and migration.

The discussion inter alia focused on the following topics and challenges:

• Family reunification
• Dublin
• Border management
• Contingency planning
• Forecasting models
• Housing alternatives
• Data management

The staff members of the Cabinet stressed the importance of getting rapidly objective and reliable information on the subjects and proposals under study and of collecting any best practices from other EU Member States to inform policy making. In order to respond to such expectations, the Belgian Contact Point of the EMN highlighted the added value of the ad hoc query mechanism thanks to which other Member States’ information and experiences on a series of questions can be gathered within a month or even less. The quality of the links within the network also allows very rapid bilateral or informal consultations. The staff of the Contact Point also put forward the fact-based and public nature of its outputs to inform the wider public and to feed the public debate on these important issues.

For further information on EMN outputs for 2023, please read this news.

The Belgian Contact Point is eager to meet with other key Belgian stakeholders in the field of asylum and migration, don’t hesitate to contact us should you be interested in meeting us and exploring issues of common interest!