WRITTEN QUESTION E-3900/97 by Nel van Dijk (V) to the Commission (11 December 1997)

Subject: International legal assistance when asylum-seekers are transferred from one country to another

The Netherlands bar association and the Standing Committee of experts in international aliens, refugee and criminal law in the Netherlands are calling for rules to ensure that if an asylum-seeker is transferred, pursuant to

the Dublin agreement, from one Member State to another, his/her file will include information on persons perviously providing him/her with professional help, so that a person providing legal assistance in the country to which he/she is transferred can contact persons providing such assistance in the first country.

Does the Commission agree that such rules are needed?

Is the Commission prepared to exercise its right of initiative in order to introduce such rules, either on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty of Maastricht, or on the basis of Article 73k of the Treaty of Amsterdam, should the latter enter into force?

Will the Commission make efforts to ensure the introduction of rules for international legal assistance for asylum-seekers if, and when, the Dublin acquis is adopted by the Community?

Answer given by Mrs Gradin on behalf of the Commission (23 February 1998)

The Commission notes that it is open to any asylum applicant who has been transferred from one Member State to another under the Dublin Convention to pass details of any person who previously provided him or her with professional assistance in the first Member State (where he or she originally claimed asylum) to his or her legal adviser in the second Member State (to which he or she has been transferred).

The Commission has not been presented with any evidence that a centralised arrangement for the exchange of this information is required. In most cases where an applicant is transferred from one Member State to another under the Dublin Convention, the first Member State will not have started to examine the substance of the applicant's claim for asylum, and it is not clear that a legal adviser in that first Member State will often hold information relevant to the outcome of the asylum claim in the second Member State. If the Commission were to be presented with evidence that formal arrangements of the sort proposed by the standing committee of experts in international aliens, refugee and criminal law in the Netherlands would meet a real need, it would consider this carefully.

Arrangements for the exchange of information between Member States in individual cases must be consistent with the terms of Article 15 of the Dublin Convention. Article 15 places limits on the purpose for which information may be exchanged, the type of information which may be exchanged, the parties which may effect an exchange, and the parties to whom information which has been exchanged can be communicated.

The committee set up by Article 18 of the Dublin Convention is the only body which has competence to adopt implementing measures and proposals for amendments or revisions to the Convention. As the Dublin Convention was concluded in 1990 prior to the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union, the Commission has no right of initiative within the framework of the Article 18 committee.

The Commission is currently considering a number of questions relating to asylum in the context of Article 73k of the Treaty of Amsterdam, and would welcome more detailed submissions on the point raised by the Honourable Member.