Harmonising towards a common asylum system
The Member States of the EU agreed as early as the 1999 meeting of the European Council in Tampere on the goal of harmonising European migration and asylum policy. In the 2004 Hague Programme the Member States decided to develop a common asylum system. The Stockholm Programme adopted in 2009 states that a common asylum process is to be established by 2012 at the latest.
As the first stage, the most important legal instruments established as the foundation for a future Common European Asylum System are:
- The Asylum Procedures Directive (2005/85/EC)
- The Qualification Directive (2004/83/EC)
- The Dublin Regulation (2003/343/EC)
- The Reception Directive (2003/9/EC)
- The EURODAC Regulation (2000/2725/EC)
These legal instruments were adopted in the years up to 2005 and have subsequently been implemented in the Member States. In June 2007, the Commission presented a Green Paper to generate a public debate in the EU on continued harmonisation. In June 2008 the Commission then adopted a strategic plan for asylum policy, describing how the Commission plans to continue the work and a list of measures that it intends to propose to complete the second phase of the common asylum system. In December 2008, proposals were presented for amendments to the Directive laying down minimum standards for the reception of asylum seekers, the EURODAC Regulation and the Dublin Regulation. Negotiations on these legal acts have begun in 2009.
Proposals for amendments to the Directive on minimum standards on procedures in Member States for granting and withdrawing refugee status and to the Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection and the content of the protection granted will also be presented in 2009.
The goal for further work is to achieve a higher common level of protection and more equal protection throughout the EU and to ensure greater solidarity among the EU Member States.
The Government wishes to see deepened cooperation in the field of asylum at the EU level. A common asylum system could help reduce over time the dramatic fluctuations in asylum flows to individual Member States.
It is important that emphasis is placed on the actual availability of possibilities to seek asylum. Measures to combat illegal immigration and trafficking in human beings must be implemented so that they do not undermine the possibility of seeking asylum, and respect for fundamental human rights in the asylum procedure.
The Dublin Regulation
The Dublin Regulation regulates which EU Member State is responsible for considering an asylum application that is submitted in one of the Member States.
The Dublin Regulation guarantees that everyone who seeks asylum in the EU will have their need for protection vis-ā-vis their country of origin considered by one of the Member States. The rules are based on the principle of first country of asylum. This means that a person fleeing from persecution in his or her country of origin is to seek protection in the first safe country where this is possible.
A number of criteria govern which country is to consider an asylum application. A Member State may be responsible for considering an asylum application if, for example, the asylum seeker has family members there, has been granted a visa for that country, has entered the EU illegally via that state or has submitted his or her first asylum application there.
The rules prevent people from seeking asylum in several states, since the asylum application must be dealt with in one state which is responsible for an examination of the substance of the case. If a person seeks asylum in more than one EU country, the asylum seeker is normally sent back to the responsible state without the grounds for asylum being considered in the other states. These rules mean that procedures between Member States are formalised. A state requests that another state take an asylum seeker back and there are formal time frames for responding.
All the Member States have acceded to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and are bound by international and European regulations on human rights. All the EU Member States are governed by the rule of law and are welfare states. In principle, all these states are equally able to provide for the rights of asylum seekers, with regard to both processing asylum applications and meeting social and medical needs.
The EURODAC Regulation
To enable the effective application of the Dublin Regulation, the fingerprints of all asylum seekers over the age of 14 are taken, under the EURODAC Regulation. EURODAC provides an electronic system for checking whether a person has sought asylum in other Member States.
