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Parliamentary question - E-003050/2015Parliamentary question
E-003050/2015

The Dublin Regulation and proportionality with regard to the Member States' reception of refugees

Question for written answer E-003050-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Ilhan Kyuchyuk (ALDE)

The Dublin Regulation (1990, 2003 and 2013) seeks to ensure that dealing with refugees' asylum claims is the responsibility of a single EU Member State, namely the first country in which the asylum application is registered, and thus to prevent the unwanted movement of refugees to other Member States. Certain countries, including Bulgaria, on the Union’s external borders have voiced dissatisfaction with the fact that they — alongside the major host countries, Germany, Sweden, France and the United Kingdom — are essentially receiving the largest shares of the influx of refugees whereas, regardless of what the regulation stipulates, others are not making a proportionate commitment.

At the beginning of 2015, Bulgaria highlighted the need to change the geographical principle of the Dublin Regulation in the interests of a better balance and greater solidarity, given that most of the refugees arriving in Bulgaria have decided in advance that they want to move to another EU Member State and make repeated attempts to do so. At the same time, other Member States also called for changes in the regulation and greater clarity in the way it is applied.

Very recently, Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the Commission, stressed that there was no national solution to this complex problem and that only a joint EU approach to migration issues was feasible.

1. How does the Commission view this common desire to amend the rules?

2. Does the Commission intend to take measures to distribute refugees among the Member States on a basis of proportionality and solidarity?