ICMCEUROPE WelcometoEurope.pdf (5.89 MB)

Chapter V - Resettlement in Europe: Rising Slowly but Surely
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6.4. EU support for emergency
resettlement
The European Union has previously
recognised the importance of emergency
resettlement by supporting the
upgrading of the Emergency Transit
Facility (ETF) in Timisoara, in Romania.
In 2012, the European Commission initiated
a specific preparatory action 57 to
support the resettlement of refugees
in emergency conditions.
The implementation of the action is
based on a system of grants awarded
to Member States willing to resettle
emergency cases. To date, only
Ireland has applied to resettle 30
such cases out of Syria. The action
also provides UNHCR with financial
support to increase its capacity in
emergency resettlement operations -
by allocating funding to ETFs in both
Romania and Slovakia, and strengthening
UNHCR’s capacity to coordinate
emergency resettlement, monitor the
effectiveness of the use of emergency
resettlement places and advocate
for resettlement countries to adopt
emergency quotas.
57 A preparatory action is proposed by the European
Commission with a view to launching a financial
instrument once that preparatory action is concluded.
The associated financial commitments may
be entered into the budget for not more than 3 successive
financial years, and the legislative procedure
must be concluded before the end of the third
financial year. See European Parliament (February
2011) Working Document on pilot projects and preparatory
actions in budget 2012
7. RELOCATION AND
RESETTLEMENT -
DIFFERENCES AND
CONNECTIONS
7.1. Towards a permanent EU
scheme for relocation?
Solidarity and responsibility-sharing
have always played a central role in
debates and discussions on common
EU asylum policy. In recent years,
Southern Mediterranean countries at
the external borders of the EU have
received large numbers of asylum
seekers, and have lacked the capacity
to respond adequately to these arrivals
and to offer the standards of protection
applicable within the EU.
In 2008, in response to the large
numbers of asylum seekers arriving
in Malta, the EU adopted a mechanism
to enable a joint EU response in
cases where a Member State’s particular
geographic or demographic
situation means migratory pressures
result in disproportionate pressure on
that Member State. 58 In these cases,
the mechanism would allow for the
physical transfer of beneficiaries of
international protection to another
Member State, via a process known as
‘intra-EU relocation’.
58 Council of the European Union, Document 13440/08