The evolution of the European Union law on the criminalization of humanitarian assistance to irregular migrants: From the council directive 2002/90/CE to the new pact on migration and asylum|L’Evoluzione del diritto dell’Unione Europea in materia di criminalizzazione dell’assistenza umanitaria ai migranti irregolari: Dalla direttiva 2002/90/CE del consiglio al nuovo Patto sulla migrazione e l’asilo

Abstract

With the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, the European Commission published the Guidance C(2020) 6470 of 23 September 2020 on the implementation of EU rules on definition and prevention of the facilitation of unauthorised entry, transit and residence. The present contribution shows as this guidance proposes an interpretation of the article 1 of the Council Directive 2002/90/CE, which only partially meets the problem of the criminalization of humanitarian assistance to irregular migrants, since it has shortcomings both at material and at formal level. After an analysis concerning the guidance capacity to impact on the Court of Justice and national judges case-law, the article ends with some considerations on the possible developments of the EU law on facilitation of unauthorized migration.