Migration plays a central role in current global processes of economic, social and political change. And it is a major challenge for the EU and the Member States. This paper presents some of the changed policy environment in which the EU finds itself and focuses on the developing process of a new European agenda for immigration and asylum policy. It analysis the current state of global migration and its emerging trends and highlights some of the key shifts in the European policymaking environment that the EU will face. A growing demand for European as opposed to national approaches to immigration issues allows to increase the weight of the EU in world population terms.