EU Commission Proposes New Measures to Boost Member State Cooperation on Asylum

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• EC President has reaffirmed the commitment to implement the Dublin Roadmap, which is designed to minimise incentives for secondary movements among EU countries by improving cooperation.
• The roadmap suggests several good practices, such as providing detailed information to applicants, closer oversight of transfers, using alternative measures to detention, improving communication, and upgrading IT systems.
• EUAA issued recommendations in April 2023 to assist EU countries in their Dublin transfers, with the Contact Committee set to review these practices on December 4.

The European Commission has unfolded a set of good practices in order to ensure the effectiveness of the Dublin III Regulation.

In February this year, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her commitment to implementing the Dublin Roadmap, which aims to minimise the incentives for secondary movements through improved cooperation among EU countries.

Through a letter, Von der Leyen’s comments were addressed to Member States.

The Commission has identified several good practices that would have a positive impact on the functioning of the Dublin procedure, among them presenting detailed information to the applicant, ensuring a closer oversight of the transfer, using alternative measures to detention, improving communication between the transferring and the EU States and upgrading IT systems.

The document presented today also includes an Annex providing a compilation of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the interpretation of the Dublin III Regulation, with a view to ensuring a swifter application of the Dublin rules in Member States, by ensuring a higher level of harmonisation in the Member States’ interpretation of these rules.

European Commission

In the past few years, the EU countries, guided by the Dublin Roadmap, have taken several initiatives supported by the Commission that aim to enhance the efficiency of Dublin procedures.

In order to assist EU countries in their efforts, the European Union Agency for Asylum issued Recommendations on Dublin transfers in April 2023.

The Dublin Contact Committee will review and discuss the good practices found in this document during its upcoming meeting scheduled for December 4th.

The Commission will continue to support the Member States in achieving all the objectives set in the Dublin Roadmap. To this end, the Commission will regularly update this document and continue the evaluation and monitoring of the implementation of the Dublin Roadmap within the Contact Committee on the Dublin III Regulation.

European Commission

In September 2020, the Commission introduced a new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which included several tools to make the Dublin system more effective.

The proposal included a new framework that aims to manage and normalise migration in an effective and human way, in line with the values of EU and international laws.

Besides, the Commission also adopted a new recommendation in order to tighten cooperation between the EU countries in the Schengen Area.

The Commission has emphasised that the reintroduction of border controls remains exceptional and strictly in time and must constitute a measure of last resort in case of serious threat to the public or similar reasons.

Up to this point, several European Union countries have reintroduced border controls due to irregular migration and the war between Israel and Hamas.