Brussels, 16/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - EU member states reached agreement on Friday 13 July on the compromise negotiated with the European Parliament (EP) on the directive on reception conditions for asylum seekers, a press release from the Cypriot Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers states. By 27 June, only two points remained outstanding in the trialogue meetings: how to review administrative decisions imposing detention orders on asylum seekers, and arrangements for conducting assessments (especially medical) to identify vulnerable asylum seekers. Differences on these two points prevented negotiators for coming to a definitive agreement.
The different parties had come to agreement on the rest of the text, agreeing, for example, on conditions for access for asylum seekers to the labour market (asylum seekers can take up employment after nine months) and on free legal assistance during initial consideration of the request for asylum (member states had wanted free legal assistance only in appeals against decisions delivered). The agreement thrashed out in the COREPER on 13 July will still have to be formalised with the exchange of letters with the EP and its civil liberties committee, the Cypriot Presidency said. According to a spokesperson for the Presidency, the parties agreed that there should be no automatic review of judicial decisions (the Commission wanted to impose automatic review of placement orders by a judge within 72 hours) and member states will be required to identify the needs of persons deemed vulnerable, but this “identification” will not become a specific administrative procedure. Formal adoption of the agreement by the EP is expected in September. The reception conditions directive is part of the asylum package that member states have promised to finalise before the end of this year. (SP/transl.rt)