#RefugeeCrisis: European Parliament questions if Turkey and Western Balkan countries are 'safe countries of origin'

Sylvie Guillaume MEP (S&D, French), has requested that the Asylum office provide an updated assessment about the situation in the Western Balkans and in Turkey. Parliament has also asked the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) to highlight any implications the proposal has for fundamental rights.

The Civil Liberties Committee lead the Parliament's discussions on the European Commission's proposal for an EU common list of safe countries of origin. The Commission and European Council hope that this will speed up the processing of asylum applications.

While waiting for the experts´ evaluation, Guillaume will try to reach a partial agreement on the content of the Regulation, excluding the list and all related recitals. The aim of the legislation is to establish a common list of countries considered safe for their own nationals regarding asylum requests in the EU, in order to increase the efficiency of asylum systems, discourage abuse attempts and increase convergence in the application of asylum procedures among the member states.

In her draft report, Guillaume made several amendments to the Commission's text, besides temporarily disregarding the list in the annex. Among other changes, proposed, she suggested that the EU should create an Advisory Body on Safe Country of Origin Information, formed by representatives of EASO and UNHCR, as well as other independent and reliable third parties, which would assist during the designation and list review process.

She also suggests abolishing the national lists at the latest three years after the entry into force of the EU common list, as a means to reach real harmonisation within the EU.

The European Parliament is also debating the EU-Turkey deal this morning.

Sophie in 't Veld (ALDE, Dutch) MEP argued during the debate that because Europe has failed to develop its own  response it had outsourced its problem to Turkey. She said:

"Europe is divided, paralyzed and weak and Erdogan knows it... This agreement is extremely fragile both legally and in practice and it is easy to criticise Turkey or the agreement and I agree with Mr Timmermans that this situation is the direct result of the inability or the lack of political will of European governments to agree on a fully-fledged EU asylum and migration policy."

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