EU warns 19 member states over asylum rule breaches

Syrian refugee girl Sondos Almasri, 9, who suffers from cold, is comforted by her mother, after spending the night at a collection point in the truck parking lot of the former border station on the Austrian side of the Hungarian-Austrian border near Nickelsdorf.

Brussels - European Commission has taken first step in 40 infringement procedures, in addition to 35 already opened, by sending formal letters of notice to the concerned countries.

By AFP


Published: Wed 23 Sep 2015, 3:55 PM

Last updated: Wed 23 Sep 2015, 6:05 PM

The European Commission warned on Wednesday that 19 EU member states, including France and Germany, faced possible sanctions for failing to implement rules on handling asylum seekers coming to Europe.
"It is about time that member states stepped up to the plate and did what they need to do," European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said as EU leaders gathered in Brussels for an emergency summit on the migrant crisis.
"A common asylum system can only work if every country respects the rules," Timmermans said after officials met to prepare for the summit.
The 28-nation EU has established a whole series of rules governing the handling of asylum seekers in Europe, from their arrival, to registration, treatment and rights pending a decision.
The system was completed in July this year but the flood of hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing war and turmoil across the Middle East and Africa in recent months has strained it to the limit and exposed divisions within the European Union.
EU interior ministers agreed on Tuesday to relocate some 120,000 processed asylum seekers around the bloc but this is an emergency measure and falls outside the new system.
Timmermans said the Commission, the EU's executive arm, had taken the first step in 40 infringement procedures, in addition to 35 already opened, by sending formal letters of notice to the concerned countries.
He said only five member states had fully transposed the EU rules into national law and urged their peers to follow suit quickly.
This was not only necessary in terms of dealing with the influx of refugees but was also an essential step to ensuring the EU's passport-free Schengen zone could work properly.
Several member states, especially in eastern Europe, have closed their borders or suspended crossing points in an attempt to halt the refugee influx, in violation of Schengen rules.
Timmermans said that if the rules were properly applied, "this would be one way to restore confidence in the Schengen area."
The 40 infringement procedures announced on Wednesday mostly concern member states failing to inform Brussels of how they have transposed EU asylum rules into their national law.
Greece, Italy and Hungary, which have borne the brunt of the migrant inflow, are also on the list.

European Commissioner for Budget Kristalina Georgieva, Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos talk to the media prior an emergency EU heads of state summit on migration at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels.

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