Parliamentary questions
WRITTEN QUESTION P-2088/99
by Maurizio Turco (TDI) to the Council
(8 November 1999)

Subject: Right of asylum for EU nationals in other Member States or in third countries

Following the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, asylum policy was incorporated into the EC Treaty under Title IV ("Visas, asylum, immigration and other policies related to the free movement of persons").

The Protocol on asylum for nationals of Member States of the European Union which has been attached to the EC Treaty states that the Council shall be immediately informed if a Member State should decide to grant asylum to a citizen of another EU Member State, thus confirming the central role played by the Council in the exchange of information on asylum and immigration matters between the Member States.

As a result of the above developments, EU citizens may, as a general rule, be granted asylum by third countries, but not by EU Member States, which means that the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951 and the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967 relating to the status of refugees no longer fully apply.

Have there been cases in which citizens from one EU Member State have been granted asylum by another Member State or a non-Community country, either before or after the entry into force of the EU Treaty and the Protocol on asylum? If so, on what grounds?

Would the Council not agree that a study should be conducted as a matter of urgency to identify and remove the causes behind applications for asylum being made to third countries, with a view to offsetting the restrictions placed on the right of European citizens to seek asylum in another Member State?

P-2088/99EN
Reply
(17 December 1999)

Over the six months since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam the Council has received no notification under the Protocol on asylum of any application for asylum having been made by a national of a Member State in another Member State.

The Council does not dispose of information relating to applications for asylum made by nationals of the Member States in third countries.