Publication

This commentary argues that the EU's response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the large numbers of refugees attempting to claim asylum in the EU in 2015 has been deeply disappointing, both in scope and in ambition. It also contends that two key factors lie behind the current asylum crisis: 1) existing EU rules, in the form of the Dublin regime; and 2) the systemic failure of states like Greece, Hungary and Italy to provide adequate first reception conditions to asylum-seekers. To address these issues, the authors recommend that the EU Commission should officially acknowledge that the Dublin regime does not work and call for it to be replaced by a new European Asylum System, which would have the ability to examine asylum applications and independently implement the distribution of asylum-seekers across the EU.