Debate: European Union Agency for Asylum
Date: THURSDAY, 7 OCTOBER 2021
Speaker: Stella Kyriakides
Language: EN

You show that Europe can be united on migration. You show that Europe can find compromises on migration and asylum. A strong EU Asylum Agency is a key pillar of an efficient common European asylum system. The European Asylum Agency will bring four main benefits. It will assist Member States in handling asylum challenges and fulfilling their protection obligations. It will create a common space for protection in the EU based on converged asylum procedures and reception standards to seal cracks in the system and prevent unauthorised movement across our Member States. It will facilitate resettlement and other legal pathways for people in need of protection and, it will rebuild and consolidate the mutual trust between Member States, and also to an effective return policy by assisting with a quick identification of those whose claims we can now more easily identify as unwarranted.  The Agency has been working with an outdated mandate for years now. With the new mandate the Agency will now be able to provide all the operational and technical assistance Member States need to better manage migration and respond to the complex asylum challenges.  The new Regulation provides for a considerably wider range of support activities from the beginning to the end of the procedure for international protection. The Agency will now be able to better assist Member States to register applications for international protection and with their examination and with the identification of vulnerabilities and special needs.  The triggering of operational and technical assistance will be more efficient, with concrete and shorter deadlines for each step of the procedure. The shortage of experts deployed as part of the asylum support teams has been addressed. The Agency will be able to use Member States’ experts and external experts in addition to its own staff.  An asylum reserve pool of 500 experts will be set up with the agreed national contributions to be used by the Agency in situations of disproportionate pressure and to ensure greater convergence and address disparities in the assessment of applications the Agency will be able to coordinate efforts among Member States to develop common analysis on the situation in the third countries of origin and guidance to assist Member States in the assessment of applications for international protection. A fundamental rights officer will ensure that the Agency respects fundamental rights in all of its activities, implements the Agency’s fundamental rights strategy and handles the Agency’s complaints mechanism.  The monitoring mechanism is a central part of the Commission proposal. Its proposal to identify possible shortcomings in the asylum and reception systems of Member States, assess their preparedness to manage situations of disproportionate pressure and assist them in enhancing the efficiency of their asylum and reception systems.  The Commission welcomes that this compromise fully preserves the provisions concerning the monitoring mechanism. The content of these provisions will not be reopened. It is only their application that has been postponed, but the preparations for implementation will start immediately.  This political agreement on the EU Asylum Agency is another important step forward in this pact. It shows that we, the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, can move forward on the pact. Let this agreement inspire us to work together in the same spirit of pragmatism and cooperation on all proposals under the pact.