Brussels, 26/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - Yes to the solidarity in the asylum field between the EU27 members but only on the condition that they first of all sort things out in their own countries. It is in this perspective that the discussions in Copenhagen were held by EU27 home affairs ministers, who had an extremely extensive debate on their agenda regarding migration flows and solidarity in the EU. This debate mainly focused on the new resources the big member states are prepared to consent to for small countries, such as Malta and Greece, which are currently overwhelmed by requests for asylum. Resources include new financial aid, refugee relocation programmes and revision of the Dublin regulation, one of the cornerstones of the asylum package that the EU27 is committed to finalising by the end of the year.
With regard to these resources, member states can already count on the support of the asylum mission office's (Frontex) support. Financial programmes for managing immigration flows are also expected to be increased during the next multiannual financial framework for 2014-2020, as requested by the Commission, but no breakthrough has been observed on revision of the Dublin regulation, explained one source. Member states reaffirmed their total disagreement with the Commission proposal to introduce a suspension clause on transferring asylum seekers, who under Dublin, have logically been sent back to the first country in the EU in which they arrived. The majority of countries (such as France and Germany) prefer the early warning mechanism, which helps to identify upstream difficulties in one or other of the different countries with regard to managing asylum requests and to provide technical financial aid to the country in question to prevent problems arising. The idea of a suspension clause in Dublin had almost been concluded in the Council discussions last December. The Commission also broached the idea by deciding not to refer to this instrument in its communication and replaced it with an early warning mechanism.
On the issue of relocating refugees in different EU countries, member states informed the Commission of their lack of interest in a European programme that was both structured and binding. “States can continue to act when there is a crisis” and demonstrate solidarity, which was the case with Malta in 2011 but they do not want to be obliged to do so. The “big” countries also consider that they are doing their part of the job and would like the others to do likewise by beginning to rectify the shortcomings in their own asylum systems. One source said that “there are funds available but they are not being used or cannot be used by those who receive them; this is a real problem.” Greece is being singled out. On Thursday in Copenhagen, the German secretary of state for internal affairs, Ole Schröder, called on Greece to assume its responsibilities and make its system comply with European standards before it call for further burden sharing. (SP/transl.fl)