If the Stars Align: EU Law, Policy and Practice on Solidarity and Responsibility-sharing for Asylum and Refugee Protection

The seminar will examine the notion of solidarity in the EU’s legal and policy framework on asylum and international protection. Article 80 of the TFEU requires that the Union’s common policies on asylum be ‘governed by the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility.’ However, there remain significant differences of view among Member States about what this concept entails, and what concrete measures it demands. It is clear, moreover, that fifteen years after the decision to establish the CEAS, serious imbalances exist in standards, resource levels in national asylum systems, and the distribution of responsibility for protecting refugees across the EU.