Returns Coordinator EU

The EU Returns Coordinator is a position created under Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 (the revised European Border and Coast Guard Regulation) to bring greater coherence to how the European Union and its Member States return third-country nationals who do not, or no longer, have a right to stay in the EU. The role was formally launched in 2022, when the European Commission appointed Mari Juritsch as the first Returns Coordinator, supported by a High-Level Network for Returns composed of Member State representatives.

The coordinator works inside the institutional framework of Frontex (the European Border and Coast Guard Agency) but reports to the Commission. Core tasks include:

• Aligning national return practices so that decisions issued in one Member State are recognised and acted on across the bloc.
• Identifying operational bottlenecks — such as difficulties obtaining travel documents from countries of origin or limited charter flight capacity — and proposing solutions.
• Steering the High-Level Network for Returns, which sets strategic priorities and reviews country-specific obstacles.
• Linking returns policy to readmission diplomacy, working with the Commission's services on cooperation with third countries under Article 25a of the Visa Code.

The position is closely tied to the wider Pact on Migration and Asylum, agreed in 2024, which emphasises that effective returns are a prerequisite for the credibility of the common asylum system. Critics — including civil society organisations such as ECRE and PICUM — argue that the focus on enforcement risks sidelining safeguards under the Return Directive (2008/115/EC), including the principle of non-refoulement and procedural rights to appeal. Supporters counter that the EU's historically low return rate (roughly one in five return decisions enforced, according to Eurostat figures) undermines public trust in migration governance, and that coordination at EU level is necessary to close that gap.