Since 1999, the
Common European Asylum System (CEAS), a set of standards on asylum, common to all EU member States, has been established and has, since then, been reformed. Currently, the CEAS is composed by the following instruments: the Asylum Procedures Directive; the Reception Conditions Directive, the Qualification Directive, the Dublin Regulation, and the EURODAC Regulation. The implementation of this policy is supported by a specific office – the
European Asylum Support Office. The fact that there is a common system, composed of these instruments, does not mean that all EU member States have the same rules and procedures at national level. In fact, all the
Directives (Procedures, Reception Conditions and Qualification) have to be transposed into national level. They set out goals, but member States decide on how to reach the goals determined in the directive. For this reason, there are differences between Member States when it comes to the procedures (phases, deadlines) or reception conditions.
The Dublin Regulation and theEURODAC Regulation, on the other hand, being
regulations, are directly applicable in EU member States, which means that all States are bound by the same rules. The
Dublin Regulation regulates which member State is responsible for an application for international protection, while the
EURODAC Regulation concerns the identification of applicants and establishes an EU asylum fingerprint database. The sharp rise in the number of asylum seekers in the EU exposed the flaws and limitations of the Common European Asylum System. In
2016, the European Commission proposed a package of several pieces of legislation aimed at reforming the CEAS. While broad political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council was reached regarding five out of the seven proposals, a common position was not reached regarding the other two – the reform of the Dublin system and Asylum Procedure Regulation. In 2020, the Commission adopted a new
Pact on Migration and Asylum. This Pact contains amendments to some of the previous proposals and new proposals and aims at “building confidence through more effective procedures and striking a new balance between responsibility and solidarity”. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum will have to be examined and adopted both by the European Parliament and the Council.
