The EU Communication aims to respond to EC Council's request, based on the existing policy and cooperation framework, to identify novel approaches to improve the management of legal movements of people between the EU and third countries, in order to make significant efforts to fight illegal migration.

In addition, it looks at ways to facilitate circular migration, which will help EU Member States address their labour needs while exploiting potential positive impacts of migration on development and responding to the needs of countries of origin in terms of skill transfers and of mitigating the impact of brain drain. It supports the idea of circular migration against the backdrop of changing migration patterns around the world and the need for the European Union to offer a credible alternative to illegal immigration.