Moving Ahead: Ten Years after Tampere. UNHCR's Recommendations to Sweden for its European Union Presidency (July-December 2009)
- Document number
- 2220
- Date
- 2009
- Title
- Moving Ahead: Ten Years after Tampere. UNHCR's Recommendations to Sweden for its European Union Presidency (July-December 2009)
- Author/publisher
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- Availability
- View/save PDF version of this document
- Document type(s)
- Guidelines/Recommendations, Media/News,
- Keywords
- European Union, Stockholm Programme, Irregular migration, Refugee, Asylum Seekers
- Summary
- On 18 June 2009 UNHCR presented its recommendations to Sweden that will take over the presidency of the EU in July 2009. The recommendations address issues on the EU agenda during the Swedish Presidency, as well as the longer-term perspective of the Stockholm Programme.
UNHCR urges Sweden to make the quality of asylum decision-making a central aim of its Presidency and of the Stockholm Programme. Therefore UNHCR recommends the development of quality assurance mechanisms, the extension of practical cooperation, and the gathering of effective information about asylum practices. UNHCR also encourages Sweden to lead negotiations on the current legislative proposals (Reception conditions, European Asylum Support Office, Eurodac, Dublin Regulation), and on the forthcoming ones (Qualification, and Asylum Procedures), to achieve improved standards. In addition UNHCR calls for the development of new legislation in two areas: the free movement rights for people granted international protection in the EU, and the access to child protection mechanisms for unaccompanied and separated children.
UNHCR recognizes the need for intra EU-solidarity, but this should not be at the expense of support for third countries. Some suggestions to address the current needs are: relocation as well as expanded free movement rights, intra EU-family reunification, changes to the Dublin II system, and Asylum support teams.
Finally the UNHCR makes recommendations on the ‘external dimension'. It urges the Member states to expand resettlement to the EU, and the Swedish Presidency to take forward discussions on returns in a manner that promotes sustainable reintegration in countries of origin. - Related documents