To start with, we acknowledge that migration and asylum policies differ substantially between MS and they and their societies have varied states of preparedness when it comes to admitting refugees. Retaining 28 different national systems operating in the EU is, either way, ineffective and costly. In effect, these systems end up being a “race to the bottom,” each country enacting stricter regulations in order to ensure that the burden for refugee care falls on neighbouring states rather than their own. [...]
A major obstacle to establishing a common system functioning as a single EU protective space is the (self)-perception of transit countries. This means that our countries tend to regard themselves as mere transit countries and argue that “refugees do not want to come/stay here”. Indeed, there is some truth to this statement as, statistically, a majority of asylum applications lodged here end up being terminated because of absconding. However, insisting on being a transit country acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If countries regard themselves as transit they feel no need to build the infrastructure for meaningful inclusion of refugees. Consequently, refugees would not consider these countries as their eventual destination. Naturally, destination countries being forced to receive large numbers of refugees would contribute to this vicious circle by referring to these countries as transit, spreading the message forward to refugee and migrant communities present on their territories who in turn forward it back to newly arriving refugees. [...]
In our proposal, we emphasize the need to balance the legitimate interests of both MS and refugees to increase observance by all. The system we propose recognizes that refugees have different motivations and different ties to different countries and that the current preparedness and attractiveness of countries vary significantly. The interest of refugees of settling in “un-known” countries has to be built-up as well as their trust that the system – if properly observed – will provide them with quick and effective solutions. Therefore, as we have seen, the common EU asylum system we propose requires refugees to stay in the first EU country of entry until any asylum decision is taken. In return, we propose legalization of the mobility of recognized refugees and subsidiary protection holders by the introduction of a new EU-wide residence permit for recognized refugees and subsidiary protection holders. This would enable refugees to legally, freely and safely choose their places of residence within the EU. This would include the obligation to register their place of residence with the relevant national authorities.
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