6 May 2016
On 16 March, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) issued a synthesis report on its fact-finding missions to 11 EU countries, with 16 policy recommendations. The purpose of these visits, conducted between December 2015 and January 2016, was to identify the problems, needs, failures, success stories and best practices in the current refugee crisis with the final aim of providing input to EU policy makers in the fields of asylum, migration and integration.
The report stressed the need for safe and legal routes for refugees to come to the EU and also recommended a revision of the Dublin Regulation. The EESC also called upon the EU and its Member States to support refugees in countries neighbouring conflict zones. The EESC proposed the creation of a genuine common system, which would make sure that asylum seekers are granted the same rights, reception conditions and asylum procedure in all Member States. They also recommended to ensure a uniform asylum status and the mutual recognition of asylum decisions among Member States which ECRE has called for in the past. The EESC also recommend that the EU should provide more support to civil society organisations working with refugees and to provide more factual information to journalists and the general public.
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin of 6 May 2016. You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.