site.btaBulgarian MEPs Want EU Asylum Legislation to Reduce Pressure on Bulgaria

Bulgarian MEPs Want EU Asylum Legislation to Reduce Pressure on Bulgaria

Sofia, April 6 (BTA) - Two Bulgarian MEPs of the European People's Party/GERB, Mariya Gabriel and Emil Radev, want EU asylum legislation amended so as to reduce migrant pressure on Bulgaria, the GERB party said on its website.

They have introduced proposals to the Dublin Regulation which makes the EU Member State through which an asylum seeker first entered the EU responsible to examine an application for asylum.

Gabriel and Radev propose the responsibility of the Member State of first entry to be cancelled so as to ease the pressure on Bulgaria for processing the applications of
thousands of irregular migrants from Turkey. The MEPs argue that responsibility should be assumed by the Member State of first application, regardless of whether it is the State of first entry.

This includes eliminating the possibility to return migrants to Bulgaria under the effective regulation. The two MEPs propose that if an asylum seeker leaves a Member State for more than three months, especially after a negative decision or a repatriation decision, a Member State stops being responsible for the applicant.

Gabriel and Radev also propose a rethink of the relocation scheme. They suggest more criteria to be factored in in determining a country's reference share: GDP growth; unemployment rate (because it is unfair to make countries with high unemployment accept asylum seekers when they cannot offer jobs to their own citizens); and number of the economically active population which works, pays taxes and therefore provides financial support to applicants. Countries with an aging population like Bulgaria experience stronger pressure on their budgets and find it hard to offer financial and other support to asylum seekers.

Gabriel and Radev also object to the fairness mechanism, which will be applied when Member States are confronted with a disproportionate number of asylum applications. If the number of asylum applications made in a Member.