Thursday

21st Sep 2023

Austria EU presidency seeks 'mandatory solidarity' on Dublin

  • The Austrian EU presidency will brief EU interior ministers on Dublin (Photo: PES)

The Austrian EU presidency will be pressing ahead with plans to make sure member states play their part in taking in asylum seekers.

Also known as "mandatory solidarity", the concept (and its variations) has so far eluded the past four EU presidencies in their efforts to gain some traction on reforming the so-called 'Dublin regulation' - a key EU-wide asylum law that determines who is required to process an asylum-seeker application.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The European Commission's reform proposal includes plans to automatically distribute people in need of international protection across EU states - an anathema for Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

An EU diplomat on Tuesday (9 October) told reporters in Brussels that the Austrian EU presidency is now aiming to get the EU states to agree on the principle of mandatory solidarity in the hopes of pushing ahead with Dublin reforms.

"A new Dublin regulation should have a new concept of solidarity. The only question not being able to be solved on that until now is how should this solidarity be designed," said the EU diplomat source.

The presidency over the summer held bilateral meetings with 27 other members states on Dublin and will now brief the outcome of those talks with member state interior ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Friday.

No detailed definition

The Austrian presidency has not proposed any detailed scenarios of what "mandatory solidarity" means in practice, noting that it had been mandated in June to find a consensus on the concept.

But finding that consensus has so far been elusive.

Similar quotas sparked a political crisis when the EU in 2015 imposed a temporary migrant relocation scheme, which ended last September, in an effort to ease the asylum arrival pressure in Italy and Greece.

Hungary is instead pressing for an Australian model where people are offshored in prison-like conditions.

In August, Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban and Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini also announced an anti-migration front to stop people from reaching Europe.

The infighting among EU states stands in sharp contrast to the European Parliament, which secured its own position on Dublin last year.

"We in the parliament have a two-third majority and have gathered the five groups and altogether more than 220 political parties from the European Union. 28 ministers should come up with one common text," Cecilia Wikstrom, the Swedish liberal MEP who steered the file through the parliament, told an audience at an event organised by the European policy centre, earlier this year.

Dublin in numbers

In the first six months of this year, Germany carried out some 4,900 transfers, followed by Greece (2,743), Austria (1,403) and the Netherlands (1,080), according to a study by Brussels-based European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).

But those transfers are dwarfed by requests owing to the heavy administration that underpins the Dublin regulation. Germany, for instance, had issued over 30,000 requests but managed to only carry out only 4,900 transfers.

Minos Mouzourakis, senior asylum information database (AIDA) coordinator at the ECRE, in a statement, also pointed out that member states are not required to transfer asylum seekers to other countries.

"Dublin grants them discretion to take responsibility and process the asylum claim at any point," he said.

EU states tackle Dublin asylum reform 'line by line'

A Friends of the Presidency group, set up by the Bulgarian EU presidency, has sifted through the European Commission's proposal to reform Dublin, an EU asylum law that has sparked widespread political tensions and divisions.

EU ministers try to crack asylum deadlock

Redistribution of migrants remains the worst sticking point as EU ministers discuss the latest attempt to rewrite Europe's 'Dublin' asylum law.

Stakeholder

Transforming the EU's response to forced displacement

Only through joining up external policies to ensure no one is left behind, establishing a humane and predictable asylum system, and recognising humanitarian emergencies are a political emergency, can the EU champion the humanitarian response globally.

Opinion

Europe's far-right - united in diversity?

Europe's far-right is set to rise in the next European Parliament election. This vote will not yet allow the populists to build a majority. But it may become another milestone in their process of changing European politics.

Opinion

Why a far-right surge won't change EU migration policy

The right-wing Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD), Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), and European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) groups hold 151 out of 751 seats - even large gains are unlikely to give them a majority.

Strache scandal: how big a hit will Austrian far-right take?

This is a political crisis unprecedented in Austria since the war: the resignation of the vice-chancellor, firing of the interior minister, the mass resignation of FPO ministers, a snap election, and a no-confidence vote in the Austrian parliament on Monday.

Latest News

  1. Report: Tax richest 0.5%, raise €213bn for EU coffers
  2. EU aid for Africa risks violating spending rules, Oxfam says
  3. Activists push €40bn fossil subsidies into Dutch-election spotlight
  4. Europe must Trump-proof its Ukraine arms supplies
  5. Antifascism and fascism are opposites, whatever elites say
  6. MEPs back Germany's Buch to lead ECB supervisory arm
  7. Russia to blame for Azerbaijan attack, EU says
  8. Fresh dispute may delay EU-wide migration reforms

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  2. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  3. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  4. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us