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The new version of the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum that emerged from the ministerial meeting chaired by the French EU Presidency on 8 and 9 September in Paris tones down the ambitions of the 27 member states. The document debated at the Justice and Home Affairs Council, on 7 July in Cannes, noted that the future EU asylum support office, which will not have investigatory or decision making authority, will foster "the harmonisation of practices and procedures and consequently national decisions" on asylum applications. In the new version, to be discussed at the JHA Council on 25 and 26 September in Brussels, the structure to be put in place in the early months of 2009 will be limited to encouraging "coherence" of practices, procedures and decisions. While less ambitious, this approach may be faster: the 27 await proposals from the Commission for the introduction, "if possible in 2010 and no later than 2012," of a single asylum procedure with common guarantees.
Up until now, the EU had planned on doing so by 2012. The idea is also to adopt a common status for refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.
RESETTLEMENT
The JHA ministers also seem less ambitious on the resettlement of persons placed under the protection of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR). In the Cannes version of the pact, the member states aimed to reinforce their cooperation with the UNHCR in order to provide better protection for people seeking EU aid, agreeing to "study" on a voluntary basis their resettlement in the EU, notably as part of regional protection programmes. Today, this has been reduced to "progressing," still on a voluntary basis, "towards resettlement" in the EU.
"Harmonisation" appears to be a taboo, since the 27 also deleted it from the paragraph introducing the ambition of "building a Europe of asylum" (Paragraph IV in the pact). The European Council will therefore still welcome "the progress achieved in recent years, thanks to the implementation of common minimum standards," but the progress in question concerns "putting in place a common European asylum system" rather than "harmonising asylum policies," as stated in the version tabled by France in Cannes.
The new text also states that "close dialogue should be maintained with the UNHCR in this new phase". Currently, only seven of the 27 member states implement refugee resettlement programmes. In 2007, barely 5% of those identified by the UNHCR as being in need of resettlement were admitted to the EU (around 4,000 people) compared to 48,000 in the United States.
The pact will be submitted to the European Council, on 15 and 16 October in Brussels, for approval by the EU's heads of state and government.
European Pact on Immigration and Asylum - latest draft
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