The EU on Wednesday proposed fresh changes to the bloc's uneven asylum rules, in part to stop migrants from choosing some countries over others and sowing tension across the union.
Most of the 1.3 million asylum-seekers who entered the bloc since January 2015 from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq have headed to wealthy Germany and Sweden, placing a hefty burden on those countries.
Europe's cherished passport-free Schengen zone has also faced the threat of collapse as those and other countries restored border checks to curb the flows and created chaos across the bloc.
"We want to reform our policy, not just set minimum standards but firm and fair standards replacing the current scattered approach," Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a press conference.
Under existing rules, the 28 EU member states can decide how to implement the standards.
That system, Avramopoulos said, "creates not only unequal treatment of asylum-seekers but also incentives for them to irregularly move to another member state."
He proposed common legal guarantees for asylum-seekers, including safeguards for unaccompanied minors, new obligations for them to cooperate with European authorities as well as common standards for countries to receive, host and protect them.
The proposals, which still must be debated by member states and the European Parliament, also call for every country to ensure migrants get access to jobs within six months after they apply for asylum.
Migrants will also face stricter rules to make them stay in the EU country where they have applied for asylum.
In May, EU unveiled new plans for relocating refugees in a future crisis, changing old rules that say asylum-seekers must lodge their application in the country where they first arrived.
This placed a disproportionate burden on Greece and Italy, where most arrive.
That plan includes fines for countries that refuse their share of refugees. Eastern European countries have shown the most resistance to admitting migrants.
Meanwhile the EU also has a separate plan for relocating 160,000 migrants who have already arrived, though only a handful have so far been moved.
It has a further deal with Turkey to send back all refugees landing in the Greek islands in exchange for aid and a promise to take one Syrian from camps in Turkey for evey Syrian returned from Greece.
The EU on Wednesday proposed fresh changes to the bloc’s uneven asylum rules, in part to stop migrants from choosing some countries over others and sowing tension across the union.
Most of the 1.3 million asylum-seekers who entered the bloc since January 2015 from war-torn countries like Syria and Iraq have headed to wealthy Germany and Sweden, placing a hefty burden on those countries.
Europe’s cherished passport-free Schengen zone has also faced the threat of collapse as those and other countries restored border checks to curb the flows and created chaos across the bloc.
“We want to reform our policy, not just set minimum standards but firm and fair standards replacing the current scattered approach,” Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a press conference.
Under existing rules, the 28 EU member states can decide how to implement the standards.
That system, Avramopoulos said, “creates not only unequal treatment of asylum-seekers but also incentives for them to irregularly move to another member state.”
He proposed common legal guarantees for asylum-seekers, including safeguards for unaccompanied minors, new obligations for them to cooperate with European authorities as well as common standards for countries to receive, host and protect them.
The proposals, which still must be debated by member states and the European Parliament, also call for every country to ensure migrants get access to jobs within six months after they apply for asylum.
Migrants will also face stricter rules to make them stay in the EU country where they have applied for asylum.
In May, EU unveiled new plans for relocating refugees in a future crisis, changing old rules that say asylum-seekers must lodge their application in the country where they first arrived.
This placed a disproportionate burden on Greece and Italy, where most arrive.
That plan includes fines for countries that refuse their share of refugees. Eastern European countries have shown the most resistance to admitting migrants.
Meanwhile the EU also has a separate plan for relocating 160,000 migrants who have already arrived, though only a handful have so far been moved.
It has a further deal with Turkey to send back all refugees landing in the Greek islands in exchange for aid and a promise to take one Syrian from camps in Turkey for evey Syrian returned from Greece.
