1. Common European Asylum System
Seeking Asylum: Who is who in the field of refugee protection system
Peter Stepper

2. Main sources of EU law Lisbon Treaty (Article 80)
„[t]he policies of the Union set out in this Chapter and their implementation shall be governed by the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility, including its financial implications, between the Member States.
European Pact on Immigration and Asylum
„to form the basis of a genuine common European policy on immigration and asylum, given the challenges of the coming years and the need for solidarity and cooperation in the management of migratory flows”
Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the EU
Dublin Regulation 2003/343/CE
Asylum Procedure Directive 2013/32/EU (revised)
Qualification Directive 2011/95/EU
Reception Conditions Directive

3. Other relevant sources of law
All of the member-states are signatories of 1951 Geneva Convention
Refugee definition
Principles of the Convention
Non-refoulement
Non-discrimination
Unity of the family etc.
EU 28 are the member of the Council of Europe
Signatories of ECHR (Convention on the Protection of Fundamental Freedoms)
The monitoring body of the ECHR is the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)

4. CEAS (Dublin Regulation)
Prevent asylum-shopping
Only one country shall be responsible for applicants
Assumption: all of the member-states respect human rights
Second countries has to return applicants to the first country
E.g. Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Germay has to return applicant to first (border)countries like Greece, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Poland etc.
EURODAC
Fingerprint database to help tracking the secondary movement
Problem
Inproportional burden for first countries
Human rigths atrocites in these countries (case law: M.S.S. Belgium…)

5. M.S.S. vs. Belgium and Greece (ECtHR)
M.S.S. Afghan citizen persecuted by the Taliban
Left Afghanistan by smugglers ( $) to Greece (across Iran and Turkey)
EURODAC fingerprint in Greece, detention at the airport(Winter 2008)
Arrive to Belgium (across France), but EURODAC „hit” (Winter 2009)
Return to Greece, but tried to leave with false identity documents (Summer 2009)
2 month imprisonment suspended by Athen Criminal Court, but applied for asylum before his crime
Refugee Status Determination: „pink card”.

6. M.S.S. vs. Belgium and Greece (ECtHR)
Relevant Articles of the ECHR
Aricle 2
Eveyone’ rights to life shall be protected by law.
Article 3
No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
Article 13
Rights to an effective remedy
M.S.S. argued
Detention conditions (Winter 2008) meant to be inhuman and degrading treatment
He was forced to move to Belgium because of the actual risk of refoulement to his country of origin.
Belgium argued
„Dublin II Regulation had been drawn up with due regard for the principle of non- refoulement, for fundamental human rights and for the principle that Member States of the EU were safe countries.”

7. M.S.S. vs. Belgium(ECtHR) ECtHR argued,
[Belgium] “knew or ought to have known that he had no guarantee that his asylum application would be seriously examined by the Greek authorities.
[Belgium at] first [should] verify how the Greek authorities applied their legislation on asylum in practice. Had they done this, they would have seen that the risks the applicant faced were real and individual enough to fall within the scope of Article 3.

8. Thank you for your attention!