THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION Towards a new legislative term

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 92 procedures to the external borders of the EU. Far from these disagreements, there seems to be the need to harmonise and properly implement the heritage of the CEAS, and even further still, that of building a protection framework in accordance with maximum respect for the right to asylum and human rights. In this respect, the European Union’s response to the forced displacement following the invasion of Ukraine has made it possible to manage the pressure on the Eu- ropean reception systems, demonstrating that effective resolution of the crisis involves guaranteeing rights and access to protection. Activation of the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time in history is doubtlessly one of the mile- stones in this legislative cycle. Barely a few days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 th February 2022, in the Extraordinary Justice and Home Affairs Council, the Member States demonstrated their support for acti- vating the Temporary Protection Directive. Following the procedure from this Directive, on 2 nd March the Commis- sion proposed to activate it and the Council of the Euro- pean Union agreed to this in its meeting on 3 rd March, publishing the Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/382 next day for which a massive affluence of displaced per- sons from Ukraine was observed. This made it possible to streamline awarding pro- tection without putting a strain on the Member State’s asylum systems with four million people, at the time of writing this report. Four million people obtained legal status, social care, healthcare, education, reception and all from successful community management, without the usual clashes and paralysis described above. Now, before the end of this legislation, it is urgent to extend this temporary protection as far as 2025 and prepare the medium-term response for these four million people, be it voluntary return in safe conditions if circumstances allow it or integration in reception Member States, fa- cilitating access to residence permits once the maximum deadline of the Temporary Protection has expired. To do this, it will be fundamental to negotiate the Proposal to Recast the Long-Term Resident Directive, that can count all the periods of legal residence, in- cluding any concerning temporary protection residence. In April 2023, the European Parliament agreed its ne- gotiation mandate, where it proposed that the legal residence time to access the Long-Term status would be three years, instead of five, which would facilitate access to this residence for people with temporary pro- tection when it expires in 2025 (European Parliament 2023). Political willingness to react to the conflict in Ukraine must not be exceptional, but should be taken as a refer- ence, to respond to others conflicts or similar situations such as the earthquake in Syria and Turkey, and so that the Agreement’s instruments lay the foundations for a truly common migratory and asylum policy, which makes guarantees and is capable of constructing a structural response to the European Union’s current and future challenges. Recommendations – In order to advance in the construction of a Common European Asylum System with a rights-based ap- proach that prioritises the protection of people and the safeguarding of their rights, as well as solidarity and shared responsibility among the Member States, we at CEAR propose to: – Guarantee a truly equitable distribution of shared re- sponsibilities in asylum matters among the Member States; move beyond the country of first entry crite- rion through a new hierarchy of criteria to determine responsibility, one which gives greater importance to family ties in a broad sense and considers situations of serious illness and/or disability or other situations of vulnerability of asylum seekers. – Promote the approval of a mandatory and permanent solidarity mechanism based on minimum mandatory relocation quotas as the only possible solidarity con- tribution; reject the alternative of return sponsorship or capacity support in the external dimension, bring- ing protection of people to the forefront. – Protect rescue and rescue at sea against the crimi- nalisation of humanitarian work, and adopt an agreement on a safe and predictable European dis- embarkation mechanism, with subsequent manda- tory relocation. – Oppose the compulsory nature of accelerated border procedures and reject the legal fiction of non-entry,