The Austrian Presidency of the EU Council will make a final attempt in the next two weeks to try to unblock the reform of the Dublin Regulation on the responsibilities of Member States in processing asylum applications and has plans to start a 'tour of the capitals' by appointing a special representative going from city to city, a source from the Presidency said on Wednesday 7 November. This idea was presented to the representatives of the Member States, who took stock of the 'asylum’ package on the same day.
Of the seven texts in the Asylum package, the situation still remains blocked on the 'qualifications', 'reception conditions’ and 'resettlement' aspects, with the European Parliament refusing to reopen what was informally agreed with the Council in June. However, progress is being made on the Asylum Procedures Regulation and the new EU Asylum Agency, as amended by the Commission on 13 September. The Presidency hopes to have a mandate from Council on these two texts in mid-November.
On the Dublin reform, however, the Presidency is still struggling to find a compromise and wants to continue to explore and better explain its concept of mandatory solidarity, which was postponed on 18 October at the EU summit. This will be included in the work of the person responsible for travelling to the capitals.
Vienna is not abandoning the objective of having a compromise on Dublin at the end of this year, which still seems unlikely. The idea of the ‘tour of the capitals’ was rather well received on Wednesday, but some delegations wanted to make sure that this did not mean that the work in Brussels stopped, which is not the Presidency's plan, took up this source.
During this brief review, the representatives of the Member States also renewed their support for the actions of the European Council on cooperation with third countries and on external borders. However, they did not discuss the asylum funds, a subject initially on the agenda, but finally postponed. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)