site.btaEuropean Commission Favours Reform of Dublin Regulation on Migrants

European Commission Favours Reform of Dublin Regulation on Migrants

Brussels, October 14 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - The European Commission Wednesday declared itself in favour of a review of the Dublin Regulation according to which asylum seekers must be returned to the first Member State they have entered.

The Commission's First Vice-President Frans Timmermans commented at a news conference that the Regulation was drafted and entered into force in a different situation. The principle of relocation of migrants who have arrived in Italy and Greece is at variance with the Dublin Regulation, which ignores the fact that the Member States along the EU external border come under the heaviest pressure from a migrant flux.

The Commission acknowledges the need to go ahead quickly with arrangements for flying back home the migrants who do not quality for EU protection status. Efforts are being made to fingerprint and return migrants without status as an established practice.

The Vice-President expects the Commission's proposal for the establishment of a European Coast Guard to be presented in December and to be adopted and implemented soon.

"In our opinion, the Dublin Regulation must be revisited because the refugees pass through several Member States with weak economies and no traditions of coping with these problems," Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva said last month. "The quota allocation of refugees is fairer," she added.