merrion street

The Irish Presidency today (Wednesday 27 March) marked an important step towards completing the final two legislative measures forming part of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Representatives of the Member States approved proposals for compromise texts on the recast of the Asylum Procedures Directive and the Eurodac Regulation which emerged from meetings with the European Parliament last week. It is hoped that the texts approved by Coreper today will form the basis of an early agreement.

Welcoming these developments, the Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr. Alan Shatter, Chair of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, said

"Completing the Common European Asylum System will be an important milestone towards ensuring the consistent and equitable treatment of asylum seekers irrespective of the Member State in which they present their asylum application. 327,345 asylum applications were received in the European Union in 2012, an increase of 7.8% on the previous year. It is vitally important that the Union has a system that ensures that procedures for processing applications are both fair and effective but also robust and not open to abuse. I am pleased that the Irish Presidency has been able to advance discussions with the Parliament and we are now hopeful of reaching an early agreement on this basis."

The adoption of both of these measures remains subject to the approval of the European Parliament and the Council.