European Parliament Press Seminar
A Fair Share in Europe - Creating a Common Asylum System
Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 June 2017
European Parliament, Brussels
#EPonMigration
Programme
Tuesday 6 June 2017
08:30 -12:30 NATIONAL PARTS (1)
National seminars and meetings with MEPs (organised by press officers)
Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia
CENTRAL PART
Venue: Altiero Spinelli building, room ASP 5E2
13.00 - 13.30 Opening and technical briefing
· Ioannis DARMIS, Acting Director for Media
· Rikke ULDALL, EP Press Officer
13:30-16:30 Interpretation provided in EN - FR - DE - IT - EL - ES - SV - BG
13.30 - 14.15 A New, Truly European Asylum Policy
· Exchange of views with Cecilia WIKSTRÖM (ALDE, Sweden), EP rapporteur
Moderated by Massimo Farrugia, EP Press Officer
14:15 - 15:30 The view of the European Parliament
· Alessandra MUSSOLINI (EPP, Italy)
· Elly SCHLEIN (S&D, Italy)
· Jussi HALLA-AHO (ECR, Finland)
· Jean LAMBERT (GREENS/EFA, United Kingdom)
· Laura FERRARA (EFDD, Italy)
Moderated by Massimo Farrugia, EP Press Officer
15:30 - 16:00 Presentation by UNHCR on the Dublin reform
· Sophie MAGENNIS, Head of Political and Legal Support Unit, UNHCR
16:15 - 16:45 Solidarity at the heart of a crisis-resistant common European Asylum system
· Dimitris AVRAMOPOULOS, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship
16:30 - 18:00 Individual interviews with EP rapporteur Cecilia WIKSTRÖM, MEPs and stakeholders;
Time for reporting.
18:00 Networking cocktail (MEPs Salon ASP00G)
Wednesday 7 June 2017
Venue: Paul Henri Spaak building, room PHS 1A002
09:30-12:00 Interpretation provided in EN - FR - DE - IT - EL - ES - BG - HU
09:30 - 10:30 Keynote speaker
Damien CARÊME, Mayor of Grande-Synthe (Nord-Pas de Calais, France)
10:30 - 10:45 Coffee break and interviews
10:45 - 11:30 The Challenges of Integration: Experiences and Stories from across Europe
· Mr Stavros MYROGIANNIS, Director and Site Manager, Municipal Hospitality Centre for Refugees and Migrants Mavrovouni in Kara Tepe, Lesvos (Greece)
· MsAgnese LĀCE, Researcher and Policy Analyst in the areas of migration and integration, Centre for Public Policy Providus, Riga (Latvia)
· Mr András KOVÁTS, Director, Menedék (Shelter) Organisation for the protection of migrants (Hungary)
· Mr Fabio CICONTE, Director, Terra! Onlus, (Italy)
· Mr Pierre VERBEEREN, Director-General, Médecins du Monde Belgium (Belgium)
· Ms Viola WINTERSTEIN, Coordinator Refugee Assistance and Integration, Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe, Berlin regional office (Germany)
Moderated by Massimo Farrugia, EP Press Officer
11:30 - 12:00 Exchange with by EP President Antonio Tajani
(Moderated by Jaume Duch Guillot, Director-General for Communication, EP Spokesperson)
* * *
14:30 -18:00 NATIONAL PART (2)
National seminars and meetings with MEPs
Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia
Contacts in the EP press service
Ioannis Darmis +32 (0) 498 98 32 69
Massimo Farrugia +32 (0) 476 57 03 18
Raffaella De Marte +32 (0) 485 54 51 60
Rikke Uldall +32 (0) 498 98 32 57
Seminar’s Team +32 (0) 498 98 14 33
Media seminar on Creating a Common Asylum System in Europe
The European Parliament press service is holding a media seminar in Brussels on 6 and 7 June, 2017, titled ‘A Fair Share in Europe - Creating a Common Asylum System’, with a view to generating a public debate on the need to fundametally change the so-called Dublin system through which Member States share responsibility for asylum seekers.
The problems with the current system
The unprecedented arrival of migrants from war-torn Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq in 2015 and 2016 laid bare the inadequacy of the current system which prescribes that frontline Member States register all asylum seekers entering into the EU. The present system obliges Member States such as Italy and Greece, where most migrants set foot into the EU for for the first time, to process applications for all refugees. In theory, anyone who enters the EU through a Member State, must be returned to their Member State if apprehended elsewhere in the EU.
As a result, frontline and other Member States through which refugees cross on their journey into the European heartland, do not require refugees to register upon arrival. And the ad hoc relocation system of 160,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece has been largely a failure, with only countries like Sweden and Germany taking responsibility and accepting to relocated migrants.
According to Eurostat, the number of first time asylum applicants in the EU numbered 1.26 million in 2015 and 1.20 million in 2016). The EU statistical agency reported that number of first time asylum applicants in Germany increased from 442 thousand in 2015 to 722 thousand in 2016. Greece and Italy both had increases in excess of 30,000 new asylum applications between 2015 and 2016. The largest increase in the number of first time applicants was recorded in Croatia (over 15 times as high), Slovenia (nearly five times as high) and Greece (more than four times as high). By contrast, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary and Sweden reported less than half the number of first time asylum applicants in 2016 when compared to 2015.
Sharing Responsibility falls with all Member States
Through the report being drafted by Swedish MEP Cecilia Wikström (ALDE), the European Parliament is working to revamp the current EU asylum system. According to the rapporteur, the underpinnings of a reformed Dublin Regulation should be that:
· all Member States must share responsibility for asylum seekers,
· people needing international protection should get it much faster while those who do not have the right to asylum should be returned to their home countries in a swift and dignified manner, and
· all asylum seekers should be registered upon arrival in the EU and member states with EU external borders must protect and maintain them.
The system should not encourage member states to turn a blind eye or apply “wave-through” policies, and asylum seekers should be certain that their applications will be treated swiftly and fairly in all countries.
Key proposals of the European Parliament Rapporteur
· Relocations should be automatic - If a country experiences an uncommonly high influx of asylum seekers, their transfer/relocation to other EU countries should be triggered automatically when the country has reached 100% of its allocated share.
· A Member State may not allow unregistered asylum seekers to travel elsewhere - If a Member State fails to guard its borders and lets unregistered asylum seekers travel on to other EU countries, it should be possible for the Council to suspend transfers from this Member State.
· Relocation before admissibility - imposing a requirement to establish whether an asylum application is admissible before determining the responsible member state for processing it would create an insurmountable administrative burden for “frontline” member states. Therefore, relocation should take place swiftly and admissibility should be checked by the country responsible for processing the application.
· Faster family reunification - an asylum seeker should be transferred immediately to the country in which he or she claims to have family. It should then be for this member state to establish whether the claim is correct. Should this turn out not to be the case, the asylum seeker would be transferred onwards to another Member State.
· Taking country preferences into consideration - In general, asylum seekers are not entitled to choose which Member State they go to. However, they should be able to express a preference for a particular country. By voluntarily taking this wish into consideration, Member States would get applicants with better prospects of integrating. Accepting the applicant would also count towards fulfilling the country’s quota.
· Allocating groups - applicants for international protection should have the option to register as a group (max. 30 people) upon arrival in Europe. This group registration would not imply a right to be transferred to a particular member state, but a right to be transferred together.
· Special focus on children - children and in particular unaccompanied minors should be given better care. Appointing guardians quickly (within five days), improving “best interest of the child” assessments, and establishing multidisciplinary assessment teams will enable the authorities to build trust with minors and break the negative influence of smugglers and traffickers.
· A system based on solidarity among all member states - all member states should share the responsibility for asylum seekers. It should not be possible to “pay your way out” of responsibility (e.g. opting out by paying a “financial solidarity” contribution as proposed by the European Commission). If a member state does not participate in the relocation system, it should not be eligible for solidarity payments from other Member States, through the European Structural and Investment Funds.
· Five-year transition period - to give countries time to adapt and prepare to receive asylum seekers, a five-year transition period should be introduced for the “distribution key” determining quotas for each member state. At the start, this key should be based on how many asylum seekers the country has been dealing with hitherto. This historical key should then gradually be replaced by the key suggested by the European Commission based on GDP and population size.
LEGISLATIVE TIMELINE
- The Commission’s proposal for the reform of the Dublin regulation was presented in May 2016.
- The European Parliament rapporteur, Cecilia Wikström presented her draft in March 2017 to the EP Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), and made her proposals public at the same time.
- The LIBE committee is currently looking at the draft report in detail, and will look to vote on a number of amendments which MEPs from different political groups have submitted.
- Based on the position taken in the committee, the European Parliament will vote in plenary before the summer, providing the rapporteur with a mandate before she enters negotiations with the Council and the Commission.
4