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EU: Common European Asylum System legislation - still going nowhere fast

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27 February 2019

The Council's latest "progress report" on the seven pieces of legislation underpinning the Common European Asylum System has very little progress to report.

See: Reform of the Common European Asylum System and Resettlement - Progress report (6600/19, 26 February 2019, pdf)

Dublin Regulation: "...the discussions, including the bilateral consultations carried out by the Austrian Presidency in the framework of the Tour des Capitales, grounded the assessment of the Romanian Presidency that there was no realistic prospect of making any major progress on the Dublin reform in the short term, and therefore concentrated its main efforts on advancing as much as possible the other asylum reform files during the time available before the upcoming European Parliament elections."

Reception Conditions Directive: "On 23 January 2019, COREPER confirmed support to the proposed amendments with a view to continue negotiations at technical level with the European Parliament... However, following preliminary discussions with the European Parliament, it appeared that the European Parliament stands by the provisional agreement reached in June 2018 and does not wish to reopen negotiations."

Qualification Regulation: "On 23 January 2019, COREPER confirmed support to the proposed amendments with a view to continuing negotiations with the European Parliament at technical level. In informal contacts with the European Parliament it became clear that the European Parliament stands by the provisional agreement reached in June 2018 and does not wish to reopen negotiations."

Asylum Procedures Regulation: "Four JHA Counsellors meetings were organized, which focused on the latest proposal of compromise for the border procedure, issued by the Presidency. A reading of the whole text was also made, registering progress on the file and coming closer to a consolidated version, which will be addressed to COREPER for information and, possibly, further guidance in March."

Eurodac Regulation: "The Presidency convened a meeting of JHA Counsellors on 25 February 2019 to present the latest EP compromise suggestion. While Member States welcomed the latest suggestion from the EP, they did not give the Presidency a mandate to continue negotiations with the EP for the same reasons as indicated above [the "package approach" to negotiating the CEAS legislation, i.e. it must be dealt with as a whole]."

EU Asylum Agency Regulation: "During the discussions in COREPER it was clear that there was no sufficient support for the Presidency's compromise suggestions both for reasons of substance and for reasons related to the "package approach". The Presidency continued work at a technical level and convened a meeting of JHA Counsellors on 4 February where a revised compromise text was discussed. Since the position of the Member States remained the same as in the previous discussion, the Presidency considered that all possibilities have been exhausted at technical level."

Resettlement Regulation: "On 15 February 2019 COREPER discussed again the provisions that were left out from the provisional agreement and the new compromise proposals as regards the key concerns expressed by the Member States in June 2018. However, while the majority of Member States could support the content of the Presidency's text, COREPER did not give a mandate to the Presidency to proceed to a trilogue with the EP due to the "package approach". Consequently, the Presidency conveyed this message to the European Parliament."