Common European Asylum System in a Changing World

 Overview of CEAS instruments

• The Dublin Regulation establishes the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection (i.e. which Member State shall decide on the merits, the application for international protection). • The Eurodac Regulation creates a fingerprint biometric database and allows for access to more detailed information about the applicant especially for the purpose of the Dublin regulation. • The Qualification Directive imposes common standards on the incorporation of the 1951 Geneva Convention refugee definition into EU law and on subsidiary protection definition and status (explains e.g. what is persecution and serious harm, who is excluded from protection, when the protection ends, which rights refugees have etc.). • The Asylum Procedures Directive imposes procedural standards during the stages of the procedure from the asylum application to the final decision on international protection including court appeal procedures (brings standards e.g. for interview, decision, accelerated and border procedure or subsequent effects of the appeal). • The Reception Conditions Directive brings standards of treatment during the asylum process in relation to basic socio-economic rights (e.g. accommodation, financial allowances, access to health service, access to schools, or to the labour market). • The Temporary Protection Directive establishes minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons. It is a sleeping instrument – it has to be activated by the decision of the Council of the EU on the basis of a proposal by the European Commission – it has never happened so far (it brings simple procedure and rights similar to those included in RCD or QD). 3.2 Dublin Regulation Regulation (EU) 604/2013 (recast) establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person Main aim:  to ensure quick access of asylum applicants to an asylum procedure and the examination of an application in substance by a single, clearly determined, Member State  to prevent two negative phenomenons: o asylum shopping: situation where an applicant lodges more applications in various Member States and all of them examine it o refugees in orbit : situation where none of the Member States feels responsible for the examination of the application

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