The European Parliament and the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council reached an agreement on Tuesday 29 June on the new mandate of the European Union Agency for Asylum (formerly EASO) after a single trilogue. The Member States had agreed on a new mandate on 16 June (see EUROPE 12742/10) and negotiations resumed with the European Parliament.
The bulk of the regulation had been previously agreed between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU in 2017.
The agreement reached on Tuesday morning by the co-legislators gives the future European Union Agency for Asylum more resources to help Member States manage asylum applications, but takes into account the request of southern EU countries to postpone the entry into force of certain articles of the regulation, in particular those relating to the mechanism for controlling and monitoring the situation on the ground, such as the implementation of the new asylum rules in the field. These provisions will be in force from 31 December 2023.
The new agency aims to transform EASO into “an independent agency that will develop standards, indicators, guidelines and best practices on asylum-related matters", explains the European Parliament. It will support practical cooperation and exchange of information between Member States and will have a Fundamental Rights Officer responsible for the new complaints mechanism.
The new agency will have a pool of 500 national experts who can be deployed on the ground at the request of Member States.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the agreement, which still needs to be confirmed by the EU Council and the European Parliament. “This will make our asylum procedures in the EU faster and more uniform”, was her reaction, also calling on the next Slovenian EU Council Presidency to “continue the negotiations” on the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’.
Link to the agreement: https://bit.ly/3doDJs4 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)