Brussels, 19/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - After months of blockage and a series of blunt refusals from the Council, the European Parliament has managed to agree on a compromise regarding the recasting of the so-called Dublin II regulation. On Wednesday 19 September, members of the European Parliament committee on civil liberties backed their rapporteur, Cecilia Wikström (ALDE, Sweden), during an indicative vote, endorsing the substance of the compromise.
The new “Dublin III” regulation which, like its predecessors, is to determine the member state responsible for the dossier of an asylum seeker, will certainly not comprise the famous suspension clause for the transfer of asylum seekers from one country to another, as the Parliament and the Commission had long requested, but will authorise member states that so wish to proceed to that suspension, explained Wikström on Tuesday, believing she has obtained real concessions from member states.
According to the provisional text that should be formally endorsed towards the end of October or in November by the Parliament liberties committee, a member state should continue to examine the dossier of an asylum seeker when the transfer of that person to the member state mainly responsible (under the Dublin system) is considered impossible due, for example, to systematic failings in the asylum procedure or in the conditions for hosting applicants.
Before reaching that stage, however, a new mechanism, called the “early warning system”, should allow upstream detection of problems linked to the taking in of asylum seekers in a country. This “setting up of an early warning, preparedness and crisis management mechanism (Article 31 of the agreement) will finally address the root causes of any possible dysfunctions of national asylum systems before they develop into a fully-fledged crisis, which could be detrimental both for the applicants and for mutual trust among member states”, Wikström explains. This provision was inspired above all by a series of rulings from the European Court of Human Rights. The court had, in January 2011, condemned Greece for taking the view that it was bearing the brunt of the cost of asylum seekers and implicitly compelled the other member states to no longer send asylum seekers to that country. There are also other new ideas in the text. It strengthens, for example, the fundamental rights of asylum seekers by granting them the right to be heard in a personal interview, and to present their case to the relevant authority entrusted with determining which country is responsible for the dossier. Asylum seekers will therefore be entitled to a procedure using a language they understand. When a decision to transfer someone to another member state is challenged, the member states will be under an obligation to provide free legal assistance to the persons concerned, unless a court decides that there is no chance of the appeal succeeding. Appeals may also have a suspensory effect on the transfer decision.
Another breakthrough is that unaccompanied minors may request the right to join grandparents or uncles or aunts living in a member state whereas that possibility was hitherto reserved for parents only. Finally, the text supported by the relevant committee provides for the detention of asylum seekers not to be allowed except in cases of serious risk of flight, and not to exceed three months. The provisional text, which is one of the five pillars of the future European asylum regime, was approved with 41 votes in favour, 5 against and 10 abstentions. It will be submitted to the plenary in December. (SP/transl.jl)