Brussels, 19/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Justice and Home Affairs Council on Tuesday confirmed the political agreements on the Dublin II regulation and the directive relating to the minimum conditions of reception for asylum-seekers. The Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration, Bertel Haarder, was especially proud to announce this result on Thursday. With the progress made on defining the status of refugee (i.e., the criteria to meet for asylum to be granted) we laid down the "foundation stones in the building of a common asylum policy", he declared. For European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino, too, it was a question of a "major breakthrough". If, under the Greek Presidency the Fifteen adopt the decision on the status and rights of refugees and alternate protection, as well as the proposal relating to asylum procedures, "we shall have taken the first step in the construction of a common asylum policy", he added.
True, "we are building a fortress Europe, but don't forget that it is a kindly fortress, as if you lodge your request for asylum at the border, you will now be treated in the same way throughout the European Union, and your request will be dealt with rapidly in the State that has to examine your request, according to the rules of Dublin II", declared the President-in-Office of the Council.
Responsibility for examining a request for asylum: the Council reaffirmed the political agreement reached on 6 December on the Dublin II regulation. The final version of the text not yet being available in all languages, the text was not formally approved on Thursday. It should be approved as item A at the Agriculture Council of 20 January having passed through Coreper mid-January for a point of information, after a meeting of the relevant working group. This text defines the Member State responsible for examining a request for asylum lodged within the European Union and thus taking charge of the asylum-seeker, according to a series of criteria that must be applied in the order they appear in the regulation:
1) if the asylum-seeker is underage and alone, and his or her father or mother reside in a Member State, their request must be examined in that State;
2) if a member of the family (spouse, companion or child) of the asylum-seeker has receive the status of refugee in a Member State, the request shall be examined there, if the people concerned so wish. Likewise, if someone of their family has lodged a request for asylum in a State for which they have still not received a reply;
3) if the asylum-seeker is in possession of a valid visa or residence permit, the country that issued it shall examine the request;
4) if they have entered the EU illegally, the State responsible is the one through which they entered, but this responsibility ceases after 12 months. Beyond that period, or if it is not known where the person entered illegally, the request shall be examined by the Member State in which the asylum-seeker has lived at least 5 months, or if they have lived successively in several Member States it shall be the last of them;
5) if the asylum-seeker has entered through a Member State that does not ask for a visa of nationals of the country from where he or she originates (whereas the country where the request is lodged still imposes visas), the country that renounced the visa obligation will have to examine the request;
6) if none of these criteria can be met, the State in which the asylum-seeker lodged his or her request will have to examine it;
7) however, if several members of a family (spouse, companion , child) lodge their requests for asylum at the same time or almost and could risk being separated, all the requests shall be examined either by the State responsible for the entry of the greatest number (according to the criteria described above), or, if that cannot be established, by the State responsible for the entry of the oldest.
The regulation will replace the Dublin Convention, which above laid down the principle of the responsibility of the State through which the asylum-seeker entered.
Minimum conditions for the reception of asylum-seekers: the Council reached a political agreement on the draft directive relating to the minimum conditions for the reception of asylum-seekers. The Council was unable to adopt the text formally due to a Dutch reservation. There was a first political agreement in April, but Germany had finally asked for more flexibility on the decision to give access to the labour market. The Fifteen approved the text that all, except Sweden, had agreed to at the JHA Council of 28 and 29 November. The Laender will therefore remain free to decide on the conditions for access to the labour market. In a press release, the Commission stresses that Member States had largely reduced the scope of the text it had presented in May 2001 on free movement, access to employment and training, as well as the level of aid. EUROPE will return to the text in full tomorrow.