Refugees and the Right to Asylum:

European Union Policy

Ensuring a safe area of free movement in the European Union requires co-operation on immigration policy within the Union and good external border controls.

• Harmonisation
• European Neighbourhood Policies
• Regional Protection Programmes
  

Harmonisation

The Treaty of Amsterdam (in force since 1999) introduced a new Title IV, dealing with visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to the free movement of persons (UK retained its right to maintain border controls). The common European asylum system (CEAS), a key element of this treaty, aims to harmonise the processing of asylum claims and the treatment of applicants between all member states. The Hague Programme (November 2004) set out the second phase of the CEAS and gave new emphasis to the external dimension of asylum and migration.

European Neighbourhood Policies

With the expansion of the EU in 2004 the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) was set out to increase co-operation with the EU's’ neighbours in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region and the Southern Caucasus. The central element of this policy is the bilateral ENP action plans agreed between the EU and each partner. These set out an agenda of political and economic reforms with co-operation on issues including migration, asylum, organized crime, judicial reform and corruption. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Tunisia and Ukraine all currently have ENP action plans in force. Algeria’s action plan is under negotiation.

The EU can now negotiate readmission agreements stipulating the obligation of countries to readmit not only their own nationals but also those of a third country who arrived in the EU from the signing country.  Readmission agreements have been negotiated with Hong Kong, Macau, Sri Lanka and Albania. Negotiations are ongoing with Morocco, Turkey, Pakistan and Ukraine.

Regional Protection Programmes

Regional protection programmes (RPP) are to be developed in close cooperation with UNHCR. The aim is to enhance protection capacity in region of origin countries and include a resettlement programme (processing asylum claims in third countries for resettlement in the EU).

For more on European Union migration policy see:

European Commission web pages on the European Union policy towards a common European asylum system
 
European Commission web pages on the Hague Programme
 
European Commission web pages on European neighbourhood policy

European Commission web pages on the framework for cooperation with third countries on migration issues

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