Brussels, 19/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the Council definitively approved new rules determining which member state is responsible for processing an asylum application made to the European Union. The "Dublin II" regulation, which had already met with the member states' approval at the beginning of December, will replace the Dublin Convention, with additional criteria to determine whether the state responsible is the one by which the person entered, the one in which they remained, or the one in which the application was finally lodged (see EUROPE of 20 December). The regulation will enter into force on the twentieth day after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities. It will be applicable to asylum applications lodged as of the first day of the sixth month following its entry into force.