European Refugee Policy: Pathways to Fairer Burden-Sharing

Abstract:

By mid-2015, a 'Common European Asylum System' (CEAS) is to be implemented across the European Union. According to the responsible Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, this will ensure better access to asylum procedures, faster and fairer decisions, and dignified and decent conditions for refugees.

However, scepticism is indicated. Firstly, the new rules offer too much leeway for them to guarantee truly equal conditions for asylum-seekers across the European Union. Secondly, there has been no progress on the question of the distribution of refugees among EU member states.

The 'Dublin system', under which in most cases the country in which an asylum-seeker first enters the European Union is responsible for housing them and processing their application, remains in place – and with it the problem of a highly uneven distribution of asylum-seekers.

The member states should therefore develop a procedure for determining fair reception quotas, for example using a multi-factor model. The fair quotas determined by such a method could then serve as the basis for the political debate about redistributing refugees or providing financial assistance.