The debate covered both internal and external aspects of the EU comprehensive approach to migration, including cooperating with international partners, fighting smuggling networks and reforming the
common European asylum system, said the ministers in a statement.
The issue falls under the remit of the external dimension of the
Common European Asylum System, which is handled by EU foreign ministers, and was not something discussed during the Informal Home and Justice Council summit held in Bucharest this week where member-states once more discussed the migration crisis which is increasingly affecting Cyprus.
The
Common European Asylum System provides asylum for people who leave because of persecution or other serious violations of human rights and freedoms in their country and therefore need international protection.
Under the Dublin regulations that form a key part of the
Common European Asylum System the first country in which an asylum seeker arrives is usually responsible for processing that person's asylum application.
(31) It was a year of crisis and highlighted the limitations of the
Common European Asylum System and solidarity among EU countries.
The Parliament, building on the work of its rapporteur, Cecilia WikstrE[micro]m, and a strong majority of five political groups, has been ready to advance this work for more than a year and wants to see the
Common European Asylum System completed before the European elections next May.
This is Europe, and in this the way we must build our future,Ac said Avramopoulos.AcOur objective is for European citizens to perceive that the Bulgarian Presidency is steering the important topics in a good direction concerning better migration management, the reform of the
common European asylum system, and border security,Ac said BulgariaAcs Interior Minister Valentin Radev.The ministers also discussed on Thursday other border management issues, including a strategy to coordinate European border patrol agencies known as the Integrated Border Management concept.The debate focused mainly on issues such as cooperation with third countries, increasing the number of returns of illegal non-EU nationals, and interagency cooperation in the context of border management.
(56) The current Asylum Procedures for the EU are governed by the
Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
(6.) European Commission, A
Common European Asylum System (Luxembourg, 2014), p.3.
[5.] COM (2016) 197 final, Bruxelles, 06.04.2016; http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/proposal-implementation- package/docs/20160406/towards a reform of the
common european asylum system and enhancing legal avenues to europe_20160406_en.pdf.
The EU established the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in 2010, in view of these national efforts to fight the rising number of asylum seekers and refugees in the EU and to promote implementation of the
common European asylum system. (6) The EASO created a new Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), which partially took over the functions of the European Refugee Fund (ERF), which was a tool designed to enable sharing of the costs of refugee burden within the EU and which was allocated 630 million Euros in 2008-13.