The European Council is working on reforms to the Dublin Regulation. The reforms hinge on more effective burden sharing between EU countries.
Discussions on reforming the Dublin Rules have begun in earnest and the European Council is trying to speed up approval of the new regulations. The following are the key points of the proposal, ANSA has been told by EU sources close to the negotiations.
Increase in responsibility to 10 years
There is expected to be an increase in responsibility for the entrance procedure of a third country national from 12-18 months to 10 years. The EU Commission has proposed that it be made permanent while Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Spain want it set at 2 years. After the period established, the foreigner can start over in another EU country. Raising the period is expected to help prevent migrants from moving towards northern Europe.
Calculator at the center of solidarity mechanism
Every country will insert entrance requests received into a calculator, the Dublin Automatic System (DAS), which will note when the state exceeds its "fair share."
Burden sharing
The fair share of migrants that a coun try should receive is to be calculated on the basis of GDP per inhabitant. For Italy, this would be 13.7 percent of the total applications at the EU level entered into DAS. For Germany it would be 25 percent, 18 percent for France and 11 percent for Spain.
More possible transfer candidates
EU agencies will be tasked with a general screening to assess whether migrants are likely to be granted international protection. If so, they will be eligible for transfer to another EU state.
Voluntary allocations after meeting quota
This means, for example, that if 10,000 requests have been inserted into the DAS at the EU level, Italy's share will be 1,370 and any number over that is eligible for transfer. Reception is on a voluntary basis with incentives (€30,000 per migrant).
Mandatory allocations above 140 percent of quota
This means that if 10,000 EU requests are inserted into the DAS and those filed in Italy are over 1,918, and therfore 140 percent over the country's share, the extra number will be distributed across other countries through a mandatory mechanism. The EU Commission was the body to propose the obligatory nature of the mechanism and the European Council will decide on it within the next two weeks, with a qualified majority. If no decision is made, it must be rejected, or the decision will be adopted automatically.
Crisis measures
If the country were to remain over 140 percent of its quota for two years, or if 225,000 migrants (0.05 percent of the EU's population) were to be allocated from the country, then EU leaders will have to bring in additional emergency measures. (Picture shows migrants landing in the port of Naples, Italy.Photo/ARCHIVE/ANSA).