Ever since the Tampere programme was adopted in 1999, the EU Member States committed themselves to build a common European asylum system, a goal that has been confirmed many times over, last time with the adoption of the Stockholm programme in 2009. In recent years, the EU institutions have been working on several proposals that together will constitute the Common European Asylum System.
The five parts of the “Asylum Package” are:
The Reception Directive, that sets the rules for the reception of asylum seekers when they reach a Member State, e.g. rules on custody.
Eurodac, a database with fingerprints of asylum seekers.
The Dublin III-Regulation, which determines the Memer States responsebility for an asylum seeker. Cecilia Wikström has been leading the negotiations on this file between the European Parliament, the Council and the EU-commission. Read more about the file here.
The Procedures Directive, that sets the rules for the asylum process, including rules for interviews, interpretation, legal assistance, deadlines and so on.
The Qualificaltions Directive, which determines the grounds on which a person is entitled asylum.
The Qualifications Directive was adopted in November 2011. The rest of the files are expected to be adopten in June 2013.