Concerns are raised about the increasingly restrictive tendencies of the regime for refugee protection that has been developing in the European Union (EU), which relies on the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (1967 Protocol), as the foundations of the universal regime for refugee protection. In the attempt to address a possible contradiction between the universal norms and their implementation at the regional level, the thesis provides a comparative analysis of norms, but also of other elements of the two regimes for refugee protection, and in that way addresses its research question about the extent to which the EU followed universal principles and norms for refugee protection and its consequential reflection in the quality of refugees protection at the EU level. Within a theoretical framework of international regimes and other relevant theories, and with a reference to specific social, political and economic circumstances, the comparative analysis of both regimes reveals the extent to which the EU has followed universal norms, by showing that although the EU regime for refugee protection relies on the same fundamental norms as the universal regime for refugee protection, and even expands them, it also introduces a number of elements that limit degree and quality of refugee protection in the EU, and thereby endanger the foundational norms. These contradictories within the EU regime itself, further reveal the weakness of the regime, but also contradictory characteristics of its relationship with the universal regime.
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