Malmström to push for suspension of transfers of asylum seekers

Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, is determined to push member states into creating a common European asylum system in 2012, she told European Voice, in a sharply worded attack on current inadequacies and delays.

Despite agreeing two years ago on a deadline of 2012, member states have stonewalled talks on the Commission's proposals since the autumn. “There is big resistance,” Malmström acknowledged. But she refused to compromise on her ambition.

One of the major stumbling blocks in the Council of Ministers is the Commission's plan for an EU mechanism for a temporary suspension of transfers of asylum-seekers to the member state through which they entered the EU.

Malmström's efforts to break the deadlock may be assisted by a recent court ruling, when the European Court of Human Rights last month awarded damages to an Afghan national who had been deported to Greece by Belgium, to compensate him for treatment in Greece, which, the court found, was unable to provide effective protection.

Several member states have already suspended returning asylum-seekers to Greece in response to the ruling. Current rules permit individual member states unilaterally to suspend returns to another member state. The Commission proposal would allow an EU-wide suspension of returns if the Commission determines it necessary.

Malmström said there was “an increasing understanding” among member states as to why an EU-wide suspension mechanism was needed. “Before the ruling it was only Greece, and to a lesser extent Malta, which wanted the suspension clause,” one diplomat told European Voice. Now, the diplomat suggested, there was much wider interest in the proposal.

The change of heart is not entirely selfless. Member states which ignore the court ruling could face significant costs. “This is all about money,” another diplomat said. “After the ruling, member states who wanted to save money by sending immigrants back to Greece could now all of a sudden face compensation claims and the obligation to process asylum applications of hundreds of people.”

It is “indecent”, Malmström said, that wide differences persist in national reception systems in “one single Europe with the same values”. She considered it intolerable that “a man or woman seeking asylum coming from one country has a 75% chance of receiving asylum in one [member] country and a 1% chance in another”.