Reforming the Common European Asylum Policy (CEAS)

Christian Kvorning Lassen has analyzed in his latest policy paper how the Common European Asylum System works and to what extent the treatment of asylum seekers and the rate of recognition of applications vary in practice between EU members.

Christian Kvorning Lassen has analyzed in his latest policy paper how the Common European Asylum System works and to what extent the treatment of asylum seekers and the rate of recognition of applications vary in practice between EU members.

• The Common European Asylum System’s (CEAS) foremost purpose is to set common minimum standards for the treatment of all asylum seekers and their applications. It aims at ensuring the impartial treatment of its subjects in accordance to relevant conventions, to which all members of the European Union are party. 
• However, the ‘migration crisis’ has highlighted that in practice, the treatment of asylum seekers, as well as recognition rates of applications, vary wildly between members of the EU. Not only does this encourage secondary movement and ‘asylum shopping’, it has also been the catalyst for a deepening schism within the EU over fundamental values, obligations, commitments, identity, and the future of the EU.

The ongoing migration crisis, seemingly peaking in 2015 and 2016 in terms of arrivals, highlighted just how ineffective these pillars had been implemented. Recognition rates9 across the EU-28 vary significantly: for instance, during Q4 2016, recognition rates ranged from a mere 3 percent in Hungary to an average of 59 percent amongst the five recipient countries hosting the brunt of the refugees.

Download the publication through the PDF on the right of this article. 

Christian Kvorning Lassen
Deputy Director & Head of Research

Expertise: Migration/European migration crisis, EU foreign policy, Scandinavian politics, populism, EU enlargement policy