Council adopts EU asylum agency regulation

The Council adopted the regulation establishing the EU asylum agency.

This regulation aims to improve the application of asylum policy within the EU, by turning the current European asylum support office (EASO) into a fully-fledged agency. This agency will be responsible for improving the functioning of the common European asylum system, by providing enhanced operational and technical assistance to member states and by contributing to more convergence in the assessment of applications for international protection.

Having a fully fledged EU asylum agency is an important step in the building of our common EU asylum policy. This agency will be able to provide quick, tangible support to member states wherever needed. It will also contribute to our cooperation with third countries, showing in a very concrete way the strength of our joint action.

Aleš Hojs, Slovenian Minister for the Interior

The EU asylum agency regulation strengthens the current EASO mandate and facilitates the deployment of experts to member states that have requested operational support. The new legislation increases the agency's support to cooperation among member states and third countries, thereby also contributing to the solidarity among member states and the EU overall external dimension. It also takes into account that discussions on a new migration and asylum pact are ongoing and defers the entry into application of the monitoring mechanism to a later stage.

Background

As part of its migration and asylum pact proposals in September 2020, the European Commission maintained its 2016 proposal on the EU asylum agency regulation, and discussions on it were relaunched. The Council presidency and the Parliament reached a provisional agreement on 29 June 2021. The Parliament formally adopted the regulation on 11 November 2021.