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EU proposal for determining which Member State is responsible for Asylum applications by refugees

Amsterdam, August 1, 2001. 

On July 27, 2001, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for handling an asylum application.

This Regulation is to replace the Dublin Convention of June 15, 1990, and it is based on Article 63(1)(a) of the EC Treaty.

Member State of Entry Responsible

The main principle laid down in the Regulation is the responsibility of the Member State in which the asylum seekers is entering the Union.

The Objectives of the Regulation are:

 

• guarantee asylum-seekers proper access to procedures for the recognition of refugee status by providing the necessary links with these procedures as defined in the proposal for a Directive on the minimum standards applicable and laying down rules setting out the penalties for exceeding deadlines;
• prevent abuse of the asylum procedures by one person submitting several applications simultaneously or successively in several Member States, with the sole aim of prolonging his or her stay in the European Union;
• remedy the omissions and correct the imprecision's in the Dublin Convention;
• adjust legal provisions in line with the new state of affairs resulting from the progress made towards the establishment of an area without internal frontiers, by, in particular, drawing appropriate conclusions from the entry into force of Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 of 15 March 2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement;
• make it possible to identify the country responsible as quickly as possible, by stipulating reasonable deadlines for the various stages of the procedure and laying down in detail the level of proof required to establish whether or not a Member State is responsible;
• increase the efficiency of the legal provisions by allowing the Member States a more realistic deadline for implementing decisions on the transfer of asylum-seekers and providing an appropriate framework for special implementation arrangements between Member States which jointly deal with a large number of cases involving the identification of the country responsible.

New Provisions

• For illegally living persons on its territory the Member States will be responsible towards its Union partners.
• Several deadlines in judging an asylum application are to be tightened up considerably.
• Some new provisions are introduced for maintaining family unity of asylum seekers.

[Relevant Links]

+ Press Release Commission of July 27, 2001

+  Proposal for a Regulation establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application of an asylum seeker. (COM(2001) 447 final) [PDF]