Provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece: relocation of applicants

PURPOSE: to amend Council Decision (EU) 2015/1601 to relocate people in need for international protection from Italy and Greece.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.

BACKGROUND: the Council adopted two Decisions establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece:

• under Council Decision (EU) 2015/1523, 40 000 applicants for international protection are to be relocated from Italy and Greece to the other Member States;
• under Council Decision (EU) 2015/1601, 120 000 applicants for international protection are to be relocated from Italy and Greece to other Member States.

Under Article 4(2) of Decision (EU) 2015/1601, as of 26 September 2016, 54 000 applicants should be relocated from Italy and Greece to the territory of other Member States unless by that date, the Commission makes a proposal to allocate them to another beneficiary Member States confronted with an emergency situation characterised by a sudden inflow of persons. 

According to Frontex data, the situation remains critical: during the first months of 2016, an average of 2 000 to 3 000 persons have entered irregularly Greece from Turkey on a daily basis. The restrictions imposed at the Greece/former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border have put additional strain on Greece and have increased the risk of new migratory routes developing through other EU Member States as the weather conditions improve.

The EU Heads of State and Government agreed on 7 March a series of principles as the basis for an agreement with Turkey which included to resettle, for every Syrian readmitted by Turkey from Greek islands, another Syrian from Turkey to the EU Member States, within the framework of the existing commitments.  In this context, the Commission's Communication on next operational steps in EU-Turkey cooperation in the field of migration called for taking the necessary steps to transfer some of the commitments under the existing relocation decisions, notably all or part of the currently unallocated 54 000 places, to the so called 1:1 scheme.

This proposal responds to the need to commit further places for resettlement from Turkey.

CONTENT: the proposed amendment consists in counting the efforts made by Member States by admitting Syrians present in Turkey through resettlement, humanitarian admission or other forms of legal admission towards the number of applicants for international protection to be relocated to their territory under Council Decision 2015/1601.

Pursuant to this amendment and in relation to the 54 000 applicants, Member States may subtract from their allocated number of relocated applicants the number of Syrians present in Turkey admitted to their territory through resettlement, humanitarian admission or other forms of legal admission under national or multilateral schemes other than the resettlement scheme.

According to Decision (EU) 2015/1601, Member States which use this facility will receive the sum of EUR 6 500.

The UK, Ireland and Denmark shall not participate in the adoption of this Decision, nor shall it be bound or subject to its application.