The recent visit of a Taliban delegation to Brussels prompted strong criticism from human rights groups and opponents of the regime, who fear it could mark another step toward normalizing the EU's relationship with the group.
Asked to facilitate the return of Afghans living illegally in Europe, the Taliban have offered to cooperate in exchange for the transfer of Afghan consulates in Europe to their control. That would fall short of formal recognition but would indeed represent another major step toward the normalization of the relations with the Emirate.
In fact, this process has been underway for years, despite repeated interruptions as the regime has gradually intensified gender segregation. The EU Delegation in Kabul re-opened in January 2022. Since 2021, European diplomats have also held repeated informal talks with Taliban representatives, typically in Doha and the United Arab Emirates.
Necessary cooperation
Although both supporters and critics of the EU's policy of engagement focus on returns to Afghanistan, several other issues also demand attention.
One example is the large number of Afghan migrants in Europe without legal status, as well as the hundreds of thousands living illegally in Turkey who seek to enter Europe.
Turkey has been pressing the EU for years to address the issue. It has a point: the situation is not sustainable. So far, Ankara appears to have successfully secured Iran's cooperation in preventing mass border crossings, but there is no guarantee this will continue.
The closure of Afghan consulates across Europe adds to the urgency, leaving hundreds of thousands of Afghans without access to consular services. The largest communities are in Germany, with 449,000 registered at the end of 2025, followed by France, with more than 100,000 in 2024.
Beyond disrupting their lives, the loss of consular access has led to a surge in fake identity documents produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan reaching European immigration agencies and further complicating asylum processing.
There is also the rise of anti-immigration politics, once largely confined to the political right but now spreading, in different forms, to the center and the left.
These political costs of maintaining the status quo must be weighed against the value of making statements of principle to the Taliban. The regime, meanwhile, does not appear unduly concerned by what EU officials say.
Germany's turning point
It is worth nothing that the EU diplomacy and individual member states have long engaged with the Taliban to ensure concessions on women's rights.
Those efforts, however, were hindered by infighting between Taliban factions favoring an opening to the West and those opposing it, yielding no concrete results.
Even as these efforts continued, some member states moved more quickly toward normalization, particularly governments that made curbing illegal immigration a top priority. Others insisted the Taliban must first demonstrate a willingness to meet European demands.
Germany, which was initially closer to opponents of normalization, began deporting Afghans back to Kabul in August 2024 and recently handed over the consulate in Bonn and the embassy in Berlin to the Taliban, driving the broader shift in EU policy.
Berlin reached ad hoc technical agreements with the regime and relied on Qatari logistical support for the transfers. So far, only convicted criminals have been returned. To process the necessary paperwork, German authorities allowed Afghan consular officials to operate in the country before ultimately transferring control of the Bonn consulate.
Technically, other European countries could replicate this model.
The challenge for critics of Brussels' changing approach is that the only alternative they offer is an increasingly unsustainable status quo, one that members states are already undermining.
Like it or not, the Taliban hold the stronger negotiating position because of the migration issue.
There is no viable alternative to handing control of the consulates to the Taliban.
It is time to focus on forms of engagement that not only help manage new arrivals and cushion the impact of returns, but also facilitate Afghanistan's long-term social development.
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