Brussels, 01/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 1 June 2011, the European Commission unveiled updated asylum legislation for the EU, the directive on conditions for asylum-seekers and the directive on asylum procedures, in order to make them clearer, simpler and more flexible. The aim of the new legislation is to meet the demands of the EU Council of Ministers on the legislation in question, with the hope of gaining ground in the overall asylum package and meeting the target of introducing a harmonised EU asylum system by 2013.
To this end, the Commission had offered the Council of Ministers a number of guarantees while trying to protect its initial objectives. For example, the Commission has given the member states more options for making use of fast-track asylum request processing (when an application is judged to not hold much water).
Another concession is that unlike what the EP wanted, free legal aid will no longer be provided to asylum seekers in the initial phase of their application. The competent authorities must ensure that asylum-seekers are provided with advice (not necessarily from lawyers in the first instance - an issue feared by the Council of Ministers), possibly from NGOs or other existing services. The possibility of providing free legal aid will only be mentioned (not made compulsory) later in the process, during the appeals procedures, when member states will be able to interview asylum-seekers to see whether they deserve asylum and whether their asylum request is genuine. If an asylum-seeker fails the test, then there will be no obligation to provide free aid, explains a source.
Another change is in terms of the timing of initial decisions. The Commission is keeping its aim of a six-month deadline but has included cases where member states would have to grant a year or longer, if their asylum system is under objective pressure from large numbers of asylum-seekers. The Commission has also included exemptions when the appeals procedure would not apply, explains a source.
On the conditions in which asylum-seekers are kept, the Commission has kept the aim of asylum-seekers being able to work in the member state after a six-month period, but has included flexibility to enable member states to restrict this right to certain jobs or set limits on the length of time an asylum-seeker may work. The Commission has not changed its basic line on the detention of asylum-seekers, making it possible in exceptional circumstances, such as for unaccompanied children whose vulnerable situation justifies keeping in detention. The member states have been greater flexibility, however, when it comes to deciding and organising such detentions of asylum-seekers for “clear, common interests when necessary and proportionate”.
The two draft directives will now be submitted to EU27 interior ministers in Luxembourg on 9 June 2011, although EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who is hoping progress will be made on the whole package of asylum legalisation, expects the negotiations to be tough, both for the updated directives and for the Dublin 2 talks (in which the Commission is still trying to get ministers to agree to its suggested mechanisms for suspending the sending of asylum-seekers from one country to the next).
Talks with the EP and various political parties will not be easy either. The Greens/EFA says the Commission has abandoned progress made in the past to give way to the Council of Ministers. Helene Flautre, for example, said that the aim of introducing a common asylum system in 2012 must be pursued, but it could not be to the detriment of asylum-seekers' rights. The EPP welcomes the new proposals, hoping they will lead to progress in the negotiations Véronique Mathieu said that countries and parliamentarians now had to make an effort and admit that concessions will be necessary in the drive towards harmonisation. (S.P./transl.fl)