ECRE's Recommendations for the Stockholm Programme
1. Introduction
With the publication of its Communication 'An area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen', the Commission has presented its views on the EU's priorities in the field of justice and home affairs, including in the field of asylum, for the next five years. The Communication will be used as the basis for discussions between the various stakeholders at EU level that should result in the adoption in December 2009 by the Heads of State and Government of the so-called Stockholm Programme. ECRE believes that the Stockholm Programme provides the EU with the opportunity to set ambitious goals for building a fair and efficient common asylum system, which could serve as a model to other regions in the world. The EU has the means and the capacity to construct a model system of protection but it currently lacks the political will to go much beyond rhetoric. The EU's asylum policy is in need of a renewed political commitment and leadership. The new five-year programme in the area of freedom, justice and security is an important occasion to secure such commitment.
The chapter on asylum in the Commission Communication provides a good overview of the issues at stake at EU level in the field of asylum for the coming years. However, as a general remark ECRE warns against a tendency to reduce the debate on the key priorities for the next multi-annual framework in this field to the issue of solidarity between Member States. There are important protection gaps in the EU's asylum policy as it stands today which need to be dealt with urgently. While ECRE acknowledges that a common approach is doomed to fail without solidarity, it remains equally important to address the existing flaws and deficiencies in the current legal framework at EU level and to ensure that the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) fully complies with obligations under international refugee and human rights law.
ECRE welcomes the restated objective of "building a true common area of protection and solidarity based on respect for human rights, high standards of protection and a general improvement in the quality of national systems". The explicit reference to the respect for human rights and quality of national asylum systems is key. ECRE research on various aspects of Member States' national asylum systems as well as research carried out by UNHCR has shown serious problems with regard to issues such as the quality of decision-making at first instance and procedural guarantees as well as with regard to the level of reception conditions for asylum seekers. In addition to stressing the need to improve the quality of national systems, ECRE believes that there would be added value in setting a general objective of improving the quality of the CEAS as a concept covering procedural guarantees, protection standards as well as reception conditions. Including such an objective as a clear political commitment in the Stockholm Programme would also acknowledge that the current legislative framework at EU-level needs considerable improvement and that a successful second phase of legislative harmonisation is indeed a precondition for achieving the Tampere commitment to establish a CEAS based on high protection standards. This paper outlines ECRE's views on the priorities and objectives that should be included in the Stockholm Programme in the field of asylum. The paper follows the structure of subheadings used in the Commission's Communication along three different sections: a) A single area of protection; b) Sharing of responsibilities and solidarity between the Member States and c) Solidarity with non-member countries: the external dimension.