ABSTRACT
Wars, political instability, poverty and ecosystem’s alterations force several people to look for better living conditions and security. Europe has become a safe haven for migrants and refugees, particularly since 2015, when thousands of people crossed the European borders on daily basis. In this paper, we aim at studying the development and the management of the 2015 migrant and refugee influx into Europe at the European Union (EU) level in terms of risk and crisis governance, mainly through the lens of the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) Risk Governance Framework. The 2015 mass influx into Europe showed the EU’s inability to cope with such an event, with a subsequent fragmented response consisting of mainly national security initiatives. A main reason behind the inadequate overall joint crisis governance at EU level has been a weak supranational risk governance, mainly due to national political, economic, security and cultural differences.
