Solidarity as a Guiding Principle of EU Asylum Policy

During 2015/2016, OECD Countries registered more than 1.6 million new asylum applications. Almost three-quarter of these were registered in European Country (OECD International Migration outlook, 2017). In response to the growing demand for international protection, the European Union has taken a set of measures to address the refugee crisis in the EU Member States and also in the neighbouring countries. Most of them, have been adopted by the Council of European Union or by the EU Commission according to the principle of the solidarity between EU Member State (European Agenda on Migration COM(2015)240 final; Council Decision (EU) 2015/1601 of 22 September 2015 and Council Decision (EU) 2015/1523 of 14 September 2015 on establishing provisional measures in the area of international protection for the benefit of Italy and Greece). The principle of solidarity and fairness in sharing responsibility has been recognized by the Lisbon Treaty. The Article 80 of TFEU provides that "The policies of the Union on border checks, asylum and immigration and their implementation shall be governed by the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility, including its financial implications, between the Member States". The solidarity is (or it should be) currently a "guiding principle" of the EU asylum policy. As has been stated on several occasions by the Commission "There cannot be a fair sharing of responsibility without solidarity". However, It should be said that some Member States, like Visegrad Group, but not only there, opposed this EU measures in the field of migration and asylum policy and refused to apply the relocation mechanism. On this ground, the contribution will focus, in particular, on the obligation of Member States under EU asylum law; on the relation between the principle of solidarity and the Dublin 'state of first entry' rule; on the most recent decisions taken by the Court of Justice in the field of asylum; on the measure adopted by the Commission against the Member States that refused to take in refugees. This chapter aims to showing the limitations but also the potentialities of the EU solidarity mechanisms.