The Council looked, on the basis of a presidency paper, at the
state-of-play of negotiations on the various legislative
proposals concerning the Common European Asylum System
(CEAS).
Ministers instructed the Council preparatory bodies to
continue their work to reach an agreement at Council level and with
the European Parliament as soon as possible.
The situation on the various files can be described as
follows:
- The Dublin II regulation
establishes the procedures for determining the
member state responsible for examining an application for
international protection. Further progress has been made on almost
all aspects, in particular concerning a proposal to introduce a
mechanism for early warning, preparedness and crisis management.
This mechanism aims at evaluating the practical functioning of
national asylum systems, assisting member states in need and
preventing asylum crisis. Such a mechanism would concentrate on
adopting measures to prevent asylum crises from developing rather
than addressing the consequences of such crises once they have
occurred.
- The qualification directive
providing for better, clearer and more
harmonised standards for identifying persons in need of
international protection was adopted in November 2011 and entered
into force in January 2012.
- The asylum procedures (current proposal being examined) and reception conditions
directives: revised proposals were tabled by the
Commission on 1 June 2011. Significant progress has been made on
the two instruments. Work is continuing on these two
proposals.
- The Eurodac regulation: discussions on amendments to the rules regulating
this fingerprint database are on hold pending a revised Commission
proposal.
Two other agreements related to the CEAS have been
achieved so far. They concern the long term residence directive
and the creation of the European Asylum Support
Office (EASO) which started operations in spring
2011.
In addition, the Council took a decision without
discussion which establishes common EU resettlement priorities for
2013 as well as new rules on EU funding for resettlement activities
carried out by member states.
For the overall context, it is to be remembered that
the European Council confirmed in its conclusions in June 2011 that
negotiations on the various elements of the CEAS should be
concluded by 2012.