Brussels, 31/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will try on Wednesday 1st June to finally take forward its asylum package and to set up a common asylum regime by the end of 2012 by proposing to amend two of the package's six texts, the directives on reception conditions for asylum seekers and on asylum procedures, which have already been revised - in 2008 and 2009 - but on which no agreement could be reached in Council.
The Commission is expected, then, to put it to member states that some procedures should be simplified, making them less bureaucratic, less burdensome and more flexible in their implementation. It will incorporate the remarks of the Council and the Parliament in the two texts.
For member states, according to a source, the main stumbling blocks with the procedure directive related to: - points of definition (should the representative of an asylum seeker be a person or an association?); - calls for clarification on the training of staff responsible for handling requests; - procedures for personal interviews with asylum seekers. A further point the Council wants to be cleared up is the legal assistance to be provided to the asylum seeker. With the reception conditions directive, the Council wanted more information on the definition of the asylum seeker's “family”, on detention conditions for asylum seekers (including duration) and on access to the labour market, member states looking to be able, depending on various circumstances, to extend the amount of time before an asylum seeker can have access to the jobs market.
In terms of “procedures”, the European Parliament (EP) also called for free legal assistance, “procedural safeguards” for the most vulnerable groups of asylum seekers and assurances on the time it takes for a decision to be reached, which must be no longer than six months. It also made demands on the time taken for appeals procedures.
The Commission will, then, have to find a way to balance the two positions, with the current texts being deemed by some to be particularly “complicated”. In the EP, for example with Sylvie Guillaume, rapporteur on asylum, the fear is that the Commission will simplify the texts by “harmonising” them to the lowest common denominator. The EP is worried, for example, that broader criteria might be incorporated, justifying accelerated procedures (used when an asylum request is felt to be of little credibility).
For other sources in the Council, while new proposals may take forward the debate on a common asylum regime, they may not be enough on their own to settle the fate of the asylum package. Some countries are awaiting with great interest another proposal on law enforcement agency access to the Eurodac system, the European database containing the finger prints of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. If “this is not tabled, the member states may not want to concede on the rest”, a source said. This is particularly the case if possible revision of the Dublin 2 regulation and the introduction of a solidarity clause which would allow the return of asylum seekers from one country to another being suspended were also to be part of the asylum package. The countries of the South, such as Greece, Malta and Italy, would like to see Dublin 2 revised, but the countries of the North are less enthusiastic. The EP backs this solidarity mechanism and “we will only give some slack on Eurodac if we get some in return on Dublin 2”, those close to Guillaume say. (S.P./transl.rt)