Project team
Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi
Evangelia (Lilian) Tsourdi is Professor and Jean Monnet Chair in European Migration Law and Governance at the Law Faculty of Maastricht University and the Maastricht Centre for European Law (MCEL). She is also the joint Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Refugee Law published by Oxford University Press.
Lilian is the principal investigator of SoftEn. She provides guidance and supervision to SoftEn’s team members, conducts own research, as well as ensures the quality of scientific research and integration of findings towards SoftEn’s three main overarching goals:
- Conceptualise soft enforcement as a distinct phenomenon shaping EU migration governance;
- Map and analyse mechanisms of soft enforcement, examining their design, operationalisation, and impact across EU and national levels;
- Develop a governance framework to ensure that soft enforcement strengthens compliance, enhances accountability, and safeguards fundamental rights.
Emma Pecqueux
Emma Pecqueux is a PhD candidate within the SoftEn project. She holds an LLB in European Law and an LLM in International Laws from Maastricht University.
Within SoftEn, Emma’s research focuses on soft enforcement through monitoring processes in the management of borders. By combining doctrinal and empirical research, her doctoral project aims to:
- Conceptualise the rise of soft enforcement through the monitoring mechanisms within EU's Integrated Border Management;
- Map and classify the different existing monitoring mechanisms;
- Assess empirically the impact of selected mechanisms on national policy implementation;
- Explore what soft enforcement through monitoring reveals about the evolving EU legal-institutional framework.
Employing law and political science approaches, her research contributes to SoftEn’s broader goal of developing a theory of soft enforcement in EU migration policy and a governance framework for its operationalisation.
Pauline El-Khoury
Pauline El-Khoury is a PhD candidate within the SoftEn project. She holds an MA in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris and an MSc in International Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), completed as part of a dual degree. She also holds an LLB in European Law and a BA in European Studies from Maastricht University.
Within SoftEn, Pauline examines steering as a form of soft enforcement, focusing on how EU migration agencies such as the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) and Frontex steer national implementation practices through non-binding instruments and informal governance processes. Her doctoral project combines doctrinal legal analysis and empirical research to:
- Conceptualise “steering” as a distinct form of soft enforcement in EU law;
- Map and classify holistically the mechanisms through which EU migration agencies steer implementation;
- Analyse the institutional, political, and constitutional factors driving or constraining these practices;
- Evaluate empirically the impact of selected processes on Member States’ implementation and on the evolving EU legal-institutional framework.
Her work bridges legal and political science approaches to EU governance and contributes to SoftEn’s broader goal of developing a theory of soft enforcement in EU migration policy and a governance framework for its operationalisation.
Andreina De Leo
Andreina De Leo is a postdoctoral researcher within the SoftEn project. She undertook her PhD at Maastricht University (Faculty of Law), as part of the doctoral programme LIMES – The Hardening and Softening of Borders: Europe in a Globalising World.
She holds a BA in Political Science, International Relations and Human Rights from the University of Padua; an LL.M in European Legal Studies (University of Turin) as well as an LLM in International Migration and Refugee Law (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).
Within SoftEn, Andreina’s research focuses on soft accountability mechanisms in EU migration policies. Her post-doctoral project combines doctrinal legal analysis with empirical qualitative research to:
- Map soft forms of accountability across EU migration policies, identifying their legal and policy bases and classifying them according to their main features;
- Analyse the design, operation, and impact of selected administrative and social accountability mechanisms within EU agencies;
- Investigate how such mechanisms enable or constrain civil society participation and institutional responsiveness in EU migration governance;
- Assess how accountability practices interact with broader EU constitutional principles and fundamental rights standards.
Through extensive expert interviews and document analysis, her research provides original empirical insights into the operationalisation and effects of soft accountability in EU migration policy. Combining law and political science, her research contributes to SoftEn’s broader goal of developing a theory of soft enforcement in EU migration policy and informing the development of a governance framework for its operationalisation.
Marcel Jazgar
Marcel Jazgar is a student assistant within the SoftEn project. He is a master's student of European Public Law and Governance within the ELS LLM programme. His interests span several areas of EU law, including migration and European criminal law, as well as the ways these fields intersect with fundamental rights and new technologies.
Marcel is contributing to SoftEn’s event planning and execution, as well as supporting the project’s broader communication and dissemination actions.
