Brussels, 11/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 10 December, the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Italy, Greece and Croatia over the implementation of the Eurodac regulation, which consists of collecting the digital fingerprints of asylum seekers so that it can be known by which country they entered the EU and who, theoretically, should be responsible for processing their application.
The Commission has noted considerable discrepancies between the numbers of migrant arrivals provided by the agency Frontex and the numbers entered over the same period by the authorities of these three countries in the Eurodac database, a Commission spokesperson explained. The institution has therefore sent these three countries letters of formal notice.
According to the Commission, as regards Italy, Frontex recorded 65,000 new arrivals between 20 July and the end of November, but over that same period, the digital fingerprints of just 29,000 people were registered on Eurodac. The same for Greece, continued Natasha Bertaud, spokesperson to European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, where the authorities registered 121,000 people on Eurodac, whilst Frontex counted 492,000 arrivals over the same period.
Taking the digital fingerprints of migrants and asylum seekers is an obligation on the member states, with the regulation requiring the “fingerprinting of asylum seekers and the transmission of the data to the central Eurodac system within 72 hours”, the Commission explains. It sent administrative letters to these three member states in October of this year. Two months later, the problems have not been effectively resolved, the Commission states in a press release.
In Italy, the authorities have reacted angrily, with the head of government, Matteo Renzi, accusing Europe of not doing everything it should to help tackle the flow of migrants, AFP reports.
Also on Thursday 10 December, the Commission asked Greece and Malta to notify it of the national measures taken to transpose the whole directive on asylum procedures, which lays down common procedures for the granting and withdrawal of international protection, and the directive on hosting conditions, on access to hosting conditions for asylum seekers whilst waiting for their application to be processed. The Commission has sent two reasoned opinions to these countries, following a letter of formal notice on 23 September.
According to Reuters, quoting a Frontex spokesperson, the number of migrants arriving in Greece fell sharply in the month of November, with fewer than 100,000 arrivals, or half as many arrivals as were registered in October. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)