Asylum Policy in Europe - Competences of the European Union and Inefficiency of the Dublin System

Abstract

This article demonstrates how the transfer of competences in the asylum policy, from the Member States onto the European Union, although guided by the objective of improving and harmonizing the scattered standards, has not resulted in a satisfactory level of refugee protection. The claim is to the contrary, that it has resulted in uneven sharing of responsibilities for the asylum seekers between the Member States and overall deterioration of the fundamental rights guarantees in the EU asylum granting procedures. The article analyses the Dublin II Regulation (establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining the asylum applications) that has, by failing to provide an effective mechanism for responsibility allocation, made the entire asylum system in the European Union dysfunctional and of questionable conformity with the Geneva Convention 1951 and other international standards of protection. The final part of the article will examine the new Commission's proposal for the amendments and the improvements of the current Regulation and demonstrate how did the Union once again miss the chance to  create a more efficient and more balanced responsibility sharing system which would consequently provide better protection to asylum seekers and thus better fulfill the objective of the Geneva Convention.