The process of harmonisation in the field of asylum started in Tampere in 1999, where EU leaders committed to establish a Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The first phase of the CEAS was completed in 2006 under the Hague Program (2004-2009) setting out the framework for a Common European Asylum System. A second phase of the harmonisation process is now accomplished by the final adoption of the recast of the EU directives and regulations on asylum.

Qualification Directive

The recast of the directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection was already approved in December 2011 and transposition is foreseen for 2013.

Asylum Procedures Directive

The recast of this directive provides common deadlines for handling asylum applications (a standard six-month deadline with limited exceptions), stricter rules on training staff dealing with asylum seekers and new provisions for the special needs of unaccompanied minors and other vulnerable persons.

Reception Conditions Directive

A shortlist of grounds for detaining asylum seekers, decent detention and living conditions, an early assessment of asylum seekers' medical and psychological needs and swifter access to the labour market (nine months after lodging an asylum application) are among the key improvements to the 2003 reception conditions directive. If asylum seekers are detained, they will have to be placed in specialised detention facilities.

Dublin Regulation

The Dublin regulation determines which country is responsible for dealing with an asylum request (usually the one through which the asylum seeker first entered the EU). Under the new rules, asylum seekers will not be transferred to EU countries where there is a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment. These rules will also introduce an early-warning mechanism to help tackle problems in national asylum systems before they turn into crises.

Eurodac Regulation

The most debated modification of this regulation is that member states’ police forces and Europol will have access to asylum seekers’ fingerprints in the Eurodac database, to help them fight terrorism and serious crime. At the request of MEPs, stricter data-protection provisions and new safeguards to ensure that data is not used for other purposes, will apply.

The new asylum rules, which have already been agreed by Parliament and Council representatives and backed by national governments, should enter into force in the second half of 2015. (End 2013 for the Qualification Directive and the Dublin rules on transfers of asylum seekers will take effect six months after their legal entry into force)

Source: European Parliament/News, 12 June 2013.