Strasbourg, 22/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament, in approving, last week, the report by Ingo Schmitt (EPP, Germany), on the European Commission document "Towards common standards in terms of asylum procedures," spoke, in particular, for: a) a policy of sharing of the burden that the welcoming of the asylum seekers in the various EU Member States represents; b) stringent differentiation between asylum seekers in accordance with the Geneva Convention relating to the refugee status and immigration for economic or other reasons and the temporary welcoming of refugees from crisis regions. Furthermore, the Parliament called for specific provisions for groups with "special needs" such as "women (single), victims of torture and sexual violence, unaccompanied minors, handicapped persons and the aged." The Member States are invite to draw up a common list, "binding for all the EU Member States and regularly updated, of the countries that require a visa" and to enforce a similar procedure to "safe third countries and countries of origin." As for the programming of European Commission proposals for initiatives in this domain the Parliament invites the Commission to rationalise this programming by adopting three or four legislative acts instead of the eight
legal instruments that it should adopt, if they stick to the eight themes that, according to her, should be the object of legislative initiatives.
European Commission should simplify its programme
The Schmitt report that is the origin of this resolution related to the European Commission's working document "towards common standards relating to asylum procedures." The rapporteur underlines, in particular, that "a small number of Member States support most of the burden" in the welcoming refugees, and thus it is necessary to "complete the harmonisation of the asylum procedures in the EU with a policy for the sharing of responsibility."
Mr. Schmitt notes that the European Commission draws up in a Communication a list of eight themes that form, according to it, "the legislative programme to be started following the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty." It comments were as follows: "If the Commission was followed, we could thus foresee at least eight Community legal instruments to regulate the different aspects of the same issue," which would be "hardly transparent or effective." According to him, while respecting the Treaty and the deadlines set by the Vienna summit, "it seems possible to bring the legislative instruments down to three or four," i.e.: a) a Directive (to be adopted in two years to respect the calendar established by the Vienna action plan) and standards concerning the welcoming of asylum seekers, the conditions to be fulfilled to be able to eligible to the statute and on the procedure for granting or withdrawing the statute; b) a regulation, also to be adopted in two years, for "Communitarisation" of the Dublin system: this regulation would look for "more effective mechanisms for the determining of Member States competence, contain provisions aiming to ensure fair sharing of responsibility between the Member States and, in the longer-term, it should incorporate provision, "eventually adapted, to the Eurodac regulation"; c) Directive (to be presented in five years, and including the principal of a fair sharing of responsibilities) on the temporary protection granted to displaced persons and other persons in need of international protection.
According to the rapporteur, the provisions concerning the "balancing of efforts" for displaced persons and for: "de facto refugees" could be included in this Directive, or ("maybe preferably") be the object of a regulation following "a similar logic to that of the Dublin/Eurodac regulation."
From now on, underlined the rapporteur, "the Community institutions are responsible for the implementation of a European asylum system" for the European Union. For Mr. Schmitt the starting point must be the Amsterdam Treaty and the Geneva Convention, as well as other pertinent Treaties. Mr. Schmitt, in particular, reproaches the Commission Communication for not outlining, with regard to the "admissibility" of the request, the problem of requests introduced at border and the characteristics of a request for it to be receivable: according to him, it would be opportune to establish a new assessment of the notion of "phases of admissibility" and of "phases of in-depth investigation." Furthermore, according to him, it is necessary: - instead of trying to "reduce the incoherence" in the national lists of "safe countries", establish a single list of safe countries, applicable to all the Member States; - follow the "same logic" with regard to "unsafe - countries; - reduce and simplify the admission procedure, "while simultaneously ensuring the necessary assessment quality": the rapid procedures, or accelerated, should not be applied to the cases that are manifestly unfounded, and to requests "whose motive is obviously not based on political, religious or racist persecution."