Dublin Regulation also applies in crises
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that EU asylum law regulations apply even at times when an unusually high number of refugees are arriving in Europe. Under the Dublin III Regulation the state in which an asylum seeker first sets foot in the EU is responsible for examining their application for asylum. What does the ruling mean for the future?
Ruling offers no new perspectives
The Süddeutsche Zeitung is disappointed with the ruling:
“The Dakota Indians have an old saying: If you're riding a dead horse, get off it! The dead horse is the Dublin Regulation. … The European asylum law system based on the Dublin regulations on member state responsibility is a system of irresponsibility. The European judges have failed to put an end to this system. They have failed to at least clearly criticise this system and to propose new, more practicable and more just rules. They have failed to offer perspectives for a new refugee policy. The judges could have laid the foundation for a refugee policy based on solidarity in Europe. But they didn't. They have abandoned refugee policy and the refugees to their fate.”
A political matter
It is not the judges' job to make sure the EU has a functioning asylum system, Salzburger Nachrichten points out:
“The ECJ judges won't be able to mend the European asylum system or solve the migration crisis. Nor should they. Because it's the legislators who must make these decisions. The EU Commission proposed a reform of the Dublin system a year ago - including an automatic distribution system in crises. This is precisely what the governments in Warsaw, Budapest and Prague don't want to accept. Unless the question of to what extent immigration and asylum are decided on a national or European basis is clarified at the political level, the wandering circus will continue. And the next Yes or No from Luxembourg won't do anything to change that.”