Refugee Crisis in Europe: Towards a Common but Differentiated Responsibility?

The current refugee crisis is the worst since World War II. Europe has been hit hard, even if the majority of refugees is still found in developing countries. Besides being a humanitarian tragedy, the crisis reveals the vulnerability of the foundations of the European Union (EU) asylum system. It is apparent that the system does not fulfill one of its main aims, namely solidarity and common responsibility among EU States, and is not able to ensure respect of the asylum seekers’ basic human rights. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether the new set of measures proposed by the EU Commission’s Communication on Managing the refugee crisis (23/9/2015) constitutes a way towards a more resilient and human rights-compliant asylum system.

A successful management of the influx of refugees presupposes cooperation among EU States. States do not share same capabilities to host asylum seekers, and this should also be taken into account in the design of the common asylum system. At the same time, it is important that free riders are not encouraged, and that all EU States bear responsibility for the current situation. The principle of common but differentiated responsibility, known from international environmental law, includes promising elements to tackle common problems that require differentiated responses. The paper uses the principle as the analytical tool to study the set of measures mentioned above. On the basis of the analysis set forth in the paper recommendations will be made for further improvements to strengthen the EU's asylum system.