Towards a sustainable and fair Common European Asylum System

The Commission makes legislative proposals to reform the Common European Asylum System. It also opens the way for a decision on visa-free travel for citizens of Turkey by June and takes next steps towards lifting temporary internal border controls.

Reform of the Common European Asylum System

Today, the Commission has presented a first set of legislative proposals to reform the Common European Asylum System by creating a fairer, more efficient and more sustainable system for allocating asylum applications among Member States:

This proposal envisages a fairer system based on solidarity with a corrective allocation mechanism (the fairness mechanism). The new system will automatically establish when a country is handling a disproportionate number of asylum applications. It will do this by reference to a country's size and wealth. If one country is receiving disproportionate numbers above and beyond that reference (over 150% of the reference number), all further new applicants in that country will (regardless of nationality) be relocated, after an admissibility verification of their application, across the EU until the number of applications is back below that level. A Member State will also have the option to temporarily not take part in the reallocation. In that case, it would have to make a solidarity contribution of €250,000 for each applicant for whom it would otherwise have been responsible under the fairness mechanism, to the Member State that is reallocated the person instead.

The Commission's proposal also include elements to take account of resettlement efforts, make the asylum system more efficient, discourage abuses and secondary movements, and protecting asylum seekers' best interests with stronger guarantees for unaccompanied minors and a balanced extension of the definition of family members.

To support the practical implementation of the reformed Dublin System, the Commission proposes to transform the existing European Asylum Support Office (EASO) into a fully-fledged European Union Agency for Asylum and to reinforce the EU's fingerprinting database, Eurodac.

Visa-liberalisation

Today the Commission has proposed to the European Parliament and Council to lift the visa requirements for the citizens of Turkey, under the understanding that the Turkish authorities will fulfil, as a matter of urgency and as they committed to do so on 18 March 2016, the outstanding benchmarks of its Visa Liberalisation Roadmap.

First Vice-President Frans Timmermans i said: "Turkey has made impressive progress, particularly in recent weeks, on meeting the benchmarks of its visa liberalisation roadmap. There is still work to be done as a matter of urgency but if Turkey sustains the progress made, they can meet the remaining benchmarks."

The proposal is presented together with a Report on progress by Turkey in fulfilling the requirements of the Roadmap. The report identifies outstanding benchmarks and sets out the concrete measures that Turkey needs to meet in order to complete the remaining requirements, in areas such as the fight against corruption, data protection, judicial cooperation with all Member States, enhanced cooperation with EUROPOL and revision of the legislation and practices on terrorism.

As for all countries benefitting of visa-free travel to Europe, a safeguard clause will apply. The Commission has today proposed to strengthen this suspension mechanism to make it easier for Member States to notify circumstances leading to a possible suspension and enabling the Commission to trigger the mechanism on its own initiative.

The European Commission has also proposed to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament to lift the visa requirements for the people ofKosovo by transferring Kosovo to the visa-free list for short-stays in the Schengen area. The proposal is presented together with the Commission's positive assessment confirming that Kosovo has fulfilled the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap.

Back to Schengen

The Commission has today taken the next steps towards lifting of temporary internal border controls. It has today proposed a Recommendation, to be decided upon by the Council, to prolong proportionate controls at certain internal Schengen borders, namely in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway for a maximum period of six months. National measures have already been introduced by these countries to address the threat to public policy and internal security resulting from the secondary movements of irregular migrants. Today's draft Recommendation proposes to extend these measures, in line with the Schengen Borders Code, as, and despite significant progress made by Greece, not all of the serious deficiencies identified could be adequately and comprehensively addressed within the three months' limit.