EU Member-States’ Reps OK deal with Europarliament on Asylum, Migration Reform

EU member states’ representatives (Coreper) on Thursday approved a provisional deal reached between the Council presidency and the European Parliament last month, which according to a press release out of Brussels constitutes “a pact of five key laws which will reform the EU’s asylum and migration system.”

The five EU laws in the pact touch on all stages of asylum and migration management, according to a press release.

Among others, an update of the Eurodac regulation (an EU-wide fingerprint database) aims to better tackle irregular movements as well as to monitor the paths of asylum seekers or individuals who are in an “irregular situation throughout the EU.”

The “irregular situation” refers to illegal entry and stay in one or more EU countries.

According to the press release, “the asylum procedure regulation (APR) establishes a common procedure that member states need to follow when people seek international protection. It streamlines the procedural arrangements and sets standards for the rights of the asylum seeker. It introduces a mandatory border procedure, with the aim of quickly assessing at the EU’s external borders whether applications for asylum are unfounded or inadmissible.

“The asylum and migration management regulation (AMMR) will replace the current Dublin regulation. It sets out rules determining which member state is responsible for the examination of an asylum application. To balance the current system whereby a few member states are responsible for the vast majority of asylum applications, a new solidarity mechanism will be established. The new rules combine mandatory solidarity to support member states who cannot cope with the number of irregular arrivals into their territory with flexibility for member states as regards the choice of their contributions.”

Source: tovima.com