By Judith Crosbie
Campaign groups say Commission proposal has been watered down
[europeanvoice.com] Sweden, the current holder of
the presidency of the Council of Ministers, has dropped a proposal made
by the European Commission that decisions on refugee status made by
individual member states should be recognised across the European Union
by 2014.
In a draft five-year plan for the so-called
Stockholm programme on EU justice and security matters, Sweden has left
out the 2014 deadline and retained only a reference to “possibilities
for creating a mechanism for the mutual recognition of decisions
granting protection”.
Sweden wants EU justice
and interior ministers to agree to the Stockholm programme at a meeting
on 30 November, so that government leaders can give it their approval
at a European Council meeting on 10-11 December.
‘Lack of willingness‘
María Duro Mansilla of the European Council on
Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) said the Commission proposal was being
watered down. She added that the draft had also weakened language on
harmonising asylum legislation to achieve a common European asylum
system. The European Asylum Support Office is mentioned as promoting
this harmonisation, but Duro Mansilla said that this was not enough.
“There is a lack of willingness among member states to go for higher
standards,” she said.
The ECRE is also disappointed that the Swedish
presidency has dropped references from the original plan to adopt
common standards in the EU for the thousands of undocumented migrants
who remain in the Union without official status but who cannot be sent
home.
Duro Mansilla welcomed the decision to drop a
reference to processing asylum applications outside the EU. But the
draft is vague on how asylum-seekers can gain access to the EU, she
says.
Source: http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/swedes-drop-refugee-status-proposal/66391.aspx
