The EPC was pleased to host a closed-door roundtable in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, launching a joint one-year project on how to strengthen future EU resettlement efforts. This discussion sought to shed light on the key challenges and obstacles experienced by actors directly involved in resettlement efforts, as well as private or community sponsorship. It also highlighted several priorities that should guide future initiatives to strengthen access to protection in Europe.

Questions discussed included the impact of COVID-19 on European resettlement programmes; the factors limiting member states’ resettlement capacity; the relation between resettlement, asylum, and private sponsorship efforts; and the shape that an EU approach to community sponsorship could and should take. Participants included representatives from EU institutions, national governments, international organisations and agencies, analysts, and NGOs directly involved in resettlement and private sponsorship.