Brussels, 17/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 February, the European Commission is to suggest the creation of a European Asylum Support Office, one of the main priorities of which would be the constitution of a team of experts to be sent out into member states suffering from strong migratory pressure. The proposal for a regulation (codecision, qualified majority) provides for the Office, which will take the form of a Community agency, to be assigned three main tasks: - support for practical cooperation in terms of asylum, support to member states under particular pressure, and improvements in member state application of Community rules on asylum.
Support for practical cooperation on asylum. The Office will promote action allowing best practice to be exchanged between member states with regard to asylum. With the creation of an electronic portal, it will centralise information on the countries of origin of asylum seekers. It will coordinate information exchange as well as voluntary measures involving the intra-Community relocation of those benefiting from international protection. It will also be responsible for developing general and specific training (for the processing of asylum requests for minors and vulnerable persons, and the identification of symptoms of torture, etc) intended for national experts.
Support for member states subject to pressure. The European Asylum Support Office will coordinate the deployment of teams formed of asylum experts in order to provide operational support to member states on which migratory pressure is particularly high. The idea is to be able to help countries like Italy, Malta, Greece or Cyprus, that regularly have to face sudden and large inflows of third country nationals on their soil. Before deploying such teams, the Office will collect all information of use for the identification, preparation and definition of emergency measures to be taken, including on the basis of information provided by member states and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). On the basis of information from member states, it will systematically list and analyse structures and personnel available, mainly for translation and interpretation, as well as hosting capacities for asylum seekers in member states. When it comes to support actions strictly speaking, the Office will be responsible for: - setting in place an early warning system to notify member states of possible massive arrivals of persons seeking international protection; - coordinating action to be conducted in favour of member states in order to carry out the first analysis of asylum seekers; - coordinating actions allowing the rapid setting in place of appropriate hosting facilities by member states, mainly in the fields of housing, transport and medical assistance; - and coordinating the deployment, for a limited and appropriate duration, of one or several asylum support teams on the territory of the member state requesting their assistance. The support teams will mainly provide proficiency in interpreting, knowledge of information on the countries of origin, and know-how for the processing and management of asylum applications. In order to form these support teams, member states should contribute to the “asylum intervention reserve” by providing a list of national experts. With a view to deployment, member states should immediately make known, at the Office's request, the number, names and profiles of experts in their national reserve who can be made available within five days as members of an asylum support team. The executive director will take a decision concerning the request for deployment of the asylum support teams as quickly as possible and, at the most five working days after receiving the request from a member state. At the Office's request, member states will send out their experts unless they are faced with an exceptional situation that seriously affects the implementation of tasks at national level. The member state of origin maintains its autonomy with regard to the selection of personnel and the duration of deployment.
Contribution to the implementation of the common European asylum scheme. The European Asylum Support Office will have the task of coordinating information exchange between national asylum authorities, as well as between the European Commission and the national asylum authorities, on the subject of implementing all instruments relating to the Community acquis in asylum matters. To this end, it may create factual, legal and jurisprudential databases concerning the instruments relating to asylum at national, European or international level. The Office will gather together information on processing requests for international protection in national administrations and authorities, as well as on national legislation and their asylum-related developments, including jurisprudence. The Office will each year prepare a report on the asylum situation in the EU.
External cooperation. The European Asylum Support Office will coordinate the exchange of information and action relating to the establishment of refugees within the Union. It may establish forms of cooperation with third countries, including with regard to the strengthening of their capacities in the context of regional protection programmes.
The proposal recommends establishing close cooperation between the Office and external players and especially the UNHCR, which will be fully associated in the work of the Office given its expertise in the matter. The Office is expected to work in concert with other Community bodies, including with the agency responsible for external border cooperation (Frontex) and the agency on fundamental rights. It is also expected to cooperate with the relevant authorities of third countries and relevant international organisations within the framework of labour agreements. The Office will be open to the participation of countries that have sealed asylum agreements with the European Community, such as Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.
Powers, composition and budget. The legal base for the creation of the Office is to be found in Article 66 of the Treaty of the European Communities. To this end, it should be a Community body with a legal identity and executive authority. The Officer will not have any direct or indirect authority in the taking of decisions by member states authorities relating to individual requests for international protection. The decision on the location of the agency's head office is expected to be taken by the heads of state and government, although the proposal stipulates that the seat of the office could be located in a new member state. In its provisions, the Commission provides for a staff of around 100 to work within the Office in 2013. It will be headed by a management board, composed of representatives of member states and the Commission, as well as by an executive committee. The daily management of the Office is entrusted to the executive director, appointed for five years by the management board at a Commission proposal. The UNHCR is expected to be a member of the management board without voting rights. The Office will be financed on the basis of a budgetary line from the Community budget. The amount allocated to it is expected to be up to €44 million (2010-2013). Part of the budgetary allocation currently earmarked for the European Refugee Fund (ERF) will be transferred to the funding of the future Office. The Commission trusts that the Office, to be established one year after the regulation comes into force, will be up and running by 2010. (B.C./transl.jl)