MEPs reactions following the EC communication on the Dublin&nbsp;regulation reform and&nbsp;statements by Claude MORAES (S&amp;D,GB), Chair of the EP LIBE Committee and by Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE,SE), Rapporteur.

Brussels

statement

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

MORAES, Claude (S&D, UK)

WIKSTRÖM, Cecilia (ALDE, SE)

MEPs reactions following the EC communication on the Dublin regulation reform: statements by Claude MORAES (S&D,GB), Chair of the EP LIBE Committee and by Cecilia WIKSTRÖM (ALDE,SE), Rapporteur

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee of the EP, For the EP we had very high expectations of the Dublin revision. We have the refugee crisis, we have a big expectation that something must be done collectively in Europe. And what we see in this Commission proposal unfortunately is not the ambitious proposal, the proactive proposal that we wanted to see. So the Parliament now stands ready to make this a more ambitious proposal. we don't want to see a race to the bottom, we want to see a proactive stands within this new Dublin regulation; so it is up to the EP now, through its Rapporteur, through its members, through myself as chair, to work to ensure that the Dublin regulation is more proactive, that we look at issues of responsibility sharing, of solidarity, and that ultimately there is a compassionate and organised response to the refugee crisis. The new Dublin regulation has many expectations on it, we don't see this in the current proposal, but we have to make that proposal work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee of the EP, On the very difficult question of responsibility sharing, how is that going to be organised? Who directs this question of responsibility sharing? How do we understand this issue of organisation? These are the very tough issues that will have to be discussed.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude MORAES (S&amp;D, UK), Chair of the LIBE Committee of the EP, This is a big task of work for the EP, because there are many elements of resistance across member states, we understand this politically. But we need to do our work here to ensure that we have a mechanism that has the agreement across the EU; that can work and stand the test of time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, What we need to see is a true European instrument and keep in mind that the Dublin regulation was initially an instrument for the 20th century and it has proven now that is has collapsed; it has been suspended in member state after member state and de facto today it's a handful out of the 28 member states that are actually assessing the asylum claims of refugees and 22, 23, 24 countries are doing very little and they should do much more in order to achieve a true European responsibility.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, We are pointing out very precisely that what we need to see, for a sustainable migration policy, is a responsibility sharing between all the member states due to a distribution key based on objective criteria such as GDP, population, the level of having received refugees in recent years, etc. And when that distribution key is used I think that we will then see that this European Union is approaching the area of migration in a European way.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, We should all help each other in building up capacities, reception centres, train staff, etc. So in order to do that and not to face an overwhelming situation with the countries that feel reluctant to reach all the way up to the distribution key that is proposed, one could see a transitional period as a method of actually getting member states on board, accepting the obligations that we have all signed up to.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, I found this principle of a transition period so that those countries that have not received any refugees at all, and I would like to underline that that's a lot of our Member countries, that they will get some time to build up their capacity and their possibilities to, on the hand to communicate to their citizens that now we are doing this, but also set up reception centres and build up capacity when it comes to how to do asylum examinations/assessments and how to receive people that need protection in the country.

SOUNDBITE (Swedish), Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE, SE), Rapporteur, For this we can imagine a period where we successively build up, to receive first a few and then more and more until one has achieved what the Commission is pointing at, a distribution key, a number of people that each country should be able to receive, which is based on objective criteria such as the size of the country, the size of its population, its GDP, and how many refugees the country has previously received, in the preceding couple of years, perhaps in the 3-5-7 preceding years, something like that, and maybe also a criteria such as employment rate in the country, it is not completely irrelevant.