A Multifaceted Crisis as an Opportunity and a Risk: The EU’s Long Struggle to Reform the Dublin System for Asylum Seekers

Abstract

This chapter takes a long-term perspective on the term ‘crisis’ and EU asylum policy. It starts by looking at how the financial and economic crisis that the EU has faced post-2008 has affected decision-making processes and outcomes in the asylum field. It then moves on to the EU’s response to the recent ‘refugee crisis’. The chapter argues that the EU has sought to safeguard the key pillars of its asylum policy—notably the Dublin system—by providing EU member states that face high migratory pressures and/or financial constraints with additional support. While the southern and northern members had most political disagreements pre-2015, this has changed since the refugee crisis. The Commission’s idea to install a permanent and legally binding relocation mechanism has met staunch opposition in the Visegrad group, an alliance of four Eastern European countries. The current struggles point to a dilemma for the EU: can the EU further deepen the integration process in a field such as asylum policy in view of populists and Eurosceptic governments? The risk of a fragmentation of the EU due to the migration issue is still real.