Following the
conclusion of the Italy-Albania Protocol on migration and asylum, this article
examines the outsourcing of asylum procedures from the perspective of EU
law.After several unsuccessful projects sporadically proposed by various Member
States, the Commission now seems ready to support models of extraterritorial
assessment for asylum applications as an integral component of a wider set of
externalization measures ostensibly aimed at tackling the root causes of
migration and deterring migration flows. In this context, this analysis
describes the main outsourcing schemes that have been elaborated thus far and
zooms in on the various novel elements that characterize the Italy-Albania
Protocol. The article shows that, on the one hand, the Protocol disposes of the
main criticisms traditionally associated with externalization instruments. On
the other hand, it calls into question the consistency and effectiveness of the
Common European Asylum System and raises concerns about the compatibility of
some of its features with EU law. However, because of the rigid territoriality
on which the CEAS is based, the Protocol appears to be designed to elude the
scope of application of EU law. In this respect, this analysis argues that the
Italy-Albania Protocol elicits an evolutive reading of the well-established
territoriality of EU asylum law. It is also argued that, in any event, Italy
cannot escape the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice over the implementation
of the agreement in question.