Progress in managing the refugee crisis and scientific criteria for endocrine disruptors

The Commission reports on progress in implementing the EU-Turkey Statement and in resettling and relocating refugees. It adopts a second recommendation on steps to restore a functioning asylum system in Greece and resume Dublin transfers to the country. Finally, it presents scientific criteria for endocrine disruptors.

Implementation of EU-Turkey Statement

The Commission has adopted its 2^nd report on the implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March 2016. It shows that while there has been further good progress in its implementation, progress achieved so far remains fragile.

Some further good progress has been made as the following examples show:

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  The sharp and continued decrease of people crossing irregularly from Turkey into Greece testifies that the EU-Turkey Statement is delivering results. The average number of daily irregular crossings dropped from 1,700 in the weeks before the implementation of the Statement to 47 in May. The business model of smugglers can indeed be broken. And people in need of protection can increasingly benefit from legal and safe channels of resettlement.

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  Return of irregular migrants from Greece to Turkey: Since the Statement took effect on 20 March, 462 irregular migrants who have not applied for asylum, including 31 Syrians, have been returned to Turkey from Greece, in accordance with EU and international law and in full respect of the principle of non-refoulement.

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  "One for One" Resettlement from Turkey to the EU: Substantial progress has been made: A total of 511 Syrians have been resettled so far from Turkey to the EU under the "One for One" scheme of the EU-Turkey Statement (additional 408 since the First progress report) - substantially exceeding the number of returns from Greece to Turkey.

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  The implementation of the Facility for Refugees in Turkey is now in full swing. In addition to the €1 billion provided by the EU budget, all Member States have now contributed to their €2 billion share of the Facility. This will allow for the acceleration of the delivery of our help to refugees. So far, of the overall €3 billion, €740 million has allocated in total, for both humanitarian and non-humanitarian assistance. Of the €740 million allocated, €150 million has been contracted. Of these €150 million contracted, €105million has been disbursed to notably cover expenses for food, health care, accommodation and access to education.

But continued successful implementation will depend mainly on the political determination of all parties involved. More work needs to be done towards the full implementation of all elements of the EU-Turkey Statement. This notably includes:

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  On the EU and its Members States' side: Helping Greece to increase its capacity to deal with asylum applications in the islands and to cope with the humanitarian situation as well as stepping up the resettlement of refugees;

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  On Turkey's side: to fulfil the remaining benchmarks for visa liberalisation.

Implementation of the EU's emergency relocation and resettlement schemes

The Commission's latest report adopted today shows good progress on resettlement but very slow progress on relocation.

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  7, 272 persons mainly from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have been resettled by 10 June 2016 under the resettlement scheme of 20 July 2015 (Member States agreed to resettle 22,504 persons in need of international protection by September 2017).

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  By14 June, only 2,280 persons (1,503 from Greece and 777 from Italy)have been relocated. Commissioner Avramopoulos said: "As numbers of arrivals in Greece have gone down, the absolute onus now lies on significantly increasing and speeding up relocations. But we also cannot forget Italy, where the seasonal increase of arrivals is happening. This is a humanitarian obligation.(…)"

2^nd Recommendation identifying steps to restore Dublin transfers to Greece

The College's 2^nd recommendation adopted today underlines that since the adoption of the first Recommendation on 10 February 2016 Greece has made continuous progress in improving its asylum system, including increasing its overall reception capacity for both irregular migrants and applicants for international protection, setting up a framework for free legal aid and new appeal authorities.

However more progress is needed before Dublin transfers to Greece can be resumed by the end-of-year objective, including on establishing appropriate permanent and temporary open reception facilities, allowing effective access to the asylum procedure, instituting the new Appeals Authority without delay, ensuring access to free legal aid and establishing structures for vulnerable applicants including unaccompanied minors.

Endocrine disruptors

The College has presented its approach and two legislativeproposals for scientific criteria to identify endocrine disruptors, in the plant protection products and biocide areas

President Juncker said: "The Commission is committed to ensuring the highest level of protection of both human health and the environment, which is why we are today putting forward strict criteria for endocrine disrupter based on science - making the EU regulatory system the first worldwide to define such criteria in legislation."

To ensure that swift action is taken the Commission is also asking the European Food Safety Authority and the European Chemical Agency to begin looking at whether approved individual substance that show indications of being endocrine disruptors can be identified as such according to the criteria in the two draft legal acts presented today.