Protocol Italy-Albania (2023) as a Model of Extraterritorialization of Asylum Procedures: Legal Bases and Political Dimension

This article examines the Protocol between Italy and Albania, signed on 6 November 2023, as one of the most institutionally structured examples in European practice of relocating certain stages of border procedures and the related processing of applicants for international protection beyond the territory of a Member State of the European Union while preserving that state’s jurisdiction. The study focuses on the legal design of this mechanism, the reasons for its limited practical applicability, and its political significance for the broader European debate on the externalization of migration procedures and returns. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the protocol’s normative rationale, the conditions for its practical implementation, and its subsequent political framing in institutional and intergovernmental discussions within the EU. The methodological foundation of the study combines a case study design with chronologically structured document analysis and elements of process tracing, as well as comparative legal and political-institutional analysis of regulatory acts, judicial decisions, parliamentary materials, and documents of EU institutions. The article’s scientific novelty lies, first, in demonstrating that the legal limits of the Italy-Albania scheme are revealed through its dependence on the safe country of origin regime rather than through any abstract prohibition of extraterritorialization as such; second, in reconstructing the mechanism through which this bilateral experiment was transformed into a coalition-based argument and subsequently integrated into the official discourse of EU institutions; and third, in combining legal and political analysis on the basis of materials from 2023 to 2026. The study shows that the protocol’s direct operational effectiveness has been limited, whereas its political visibility and significance for the EU agenda have been considerably greater. The article thus clarifies the limits of generalizing from this case and demonstrates that its significance is determined not only by the legal novelty of the mechanism but also by its role in shaping the broader European debate.