A firm but fair European Asylum Policy
Addressing the refugee crisis has been the first priority of this Commission since we took office in November 2014. Last year, we took immediate steps to manage the crisis: We tripled our presence in the Mediterranean Sea, helping to save lives. We mobilised over €10 billion from the EU budget to support migration policies. We fought back against the criminal networks of smugglers and traffickers. We showed solidarity by agreeing to relocate among our Member States those people most in need of international protection. We have now started resettling refugees from outside of Europe, and are working closely with Turkey, which plays a crucial role in the region. We have also launched a new partnership with Africa to address the root causes of migration. Our proposal to establish a European Border and Coast Guard was agreed in record time and will now provide the missing link to strengthen Europe’s external borders, so that people can continue to live and move freely within the European Union.
Beyond responding to the immediate challenges, we have also started putting in place the building blocks of a sustainable Europe migration policy. And this week we are bringing the last pieces to complete our overhaul of Europe’s Common Asylum System. Europe has the highest asylum standards in the world. These principles are inscribed in our laws and our Treaties but they are poorly and disparately implemented nationally, creating incentives for migrants to try and shop around. The current rules were designed when there were much fewer arrivals and are now outdated.
The reforms will allow for both the quick identification of persons in genuine need of international protection and for the return of those who do not have the right to receive protection in the EU. Our ambition is to achieve a common asylum system that is generous to the most vulnerable whilst strict to those who try to abuse it. It is these laws, these common standards for the way EU countries treat asylum requests which create a fair system and prevent people from flocking to one place.
Rather than have a race to the bottom in which national governments downgrade their asylum systems to make them less attractive than those of the country next door, let’s set a firm but fair EU standard.
This is about building a migration and asylum policy which works for 28 EU Member States – which protects the interests of Europe’s 500 million citizens and is more humane towards asylum seekers like the 1.2 million people who asked for asylum in the EU last year.
Every EU Member State is affected. And every EU Member State has to be part of the solution.
Europe can never be built against the nation states. On the contrary, a better Europe can only be built through and with the Member States, particularly in times of crisis. This is when we need to pull together, because we are facing difficult times. From the Greek debt crisis, to the refugee crisis, to the very real threats to our security, to the existential questions surfacing with the UK referendum – every one of Europe’s 28 Member States has been affected by one or another of the many crises of our times. And Europe, collectively, has to do more and it has to do better to deal with these challenges. That is why the European Commission has a very clear reform agenda. That is why our work programme in 2015 was called ‘A New Start’ and in 2016 ‘No time for business as usual’. And we are determined to continue pursuing that ambitious, reform agenda.
We are determined to keep working for a more united Europe, for a better Europe, for a Europe that deals with the big issues that have to be tackled together – like the refugee crisis – and leaves everything else to the Member States. And we’d do well to remember that the European Union was created after two world wars and has a habit of emerging stronger from the crises it has faced. Collectively, we are stronger than the challenges that confront us. The refugee crisis has to be a case in point.
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