EU Commission aims to ease asylum rules for frontier, report says

The European Commission is drafting a proposal to change the so-called Dublin rule that obliges migrants to request asylum in the country they first arrive in, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported on Tuesday.

The paper, which did not say where it got the information from, said the commission will finalize its ideas on Sept. 8, submit them to European Union interior ministers in Brussels on Sept. 14 and then later to heads of state and government.

Following pressure from Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi among others, the package would amend the Dublin regulation that allows a member state to forcibly return asylum seekers to the first EU country they entered.

Under the new proposal, refugees would instead be automatically distributed among various member states.

The commission will also ask member states to agree to compulsory quotas for taking in more than the 40,000 migrants, who arrived in Italy and Greece, it had requested in May. It may also urge states to help Hungary too.

To avoid objections from some countries stalling the request, the package would include an opt-out clause for all states, and not just for those outside the Schengen visa-free zone.

The commission, Repubblica said, will also suggest all members agree on which countries of origin entitle a migrant to request asylum.

Migrants who are not entitled to asylum would be repatriated directly by Frontex, the EU’s border-management agency, which would be granted a mandate and funds to carry out the task, the paper said.

[Bloomberg]