Brussels, 09/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - On the first day of the asylum conference on 8 September in Paris, the secretary general of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), Bjarte Vandvik, suggested that the fact that the European asylum system is shared between the 27 members of the EU did not mean that it should be mediocre. Mr Vandvik indicated in a press release that “unless refugees have access to the EU and have a genuine chance of lodging a request for protection, a European asylum system is meaningless”. He then explained that “ECRE supports the creation of a Common European Asylum System if it leads to good standards of protection that are in line with international and European refugee and human rights law”. The secretary general affirmed that a genuine Common European Asylum System must guarantee that, no matter where an asylum seeker has his or her asylum claim processed, that person would have an equal chance of being granted asylum. Mr Vandvik asserted that, unfortunately, “this is still far from reality”. The European Parliament, which has co-decision on asylum, must therefore use this right to raise European standards in this domain. (B.C/transl.rh)