In the Spirit of EU Burden-Sharing – Past and Present challenges to respond to humanitarian crises; Kosovo and Syria in Focus

Abstract: Providing protection and assistance to refugees is a permanent challenge for the international community. In 2014 EU created a New Agenda on Migration as a immediate response to the increasing inflow of third country nationals who risked their lives when crossing the Mediterranean Sea. The first part of the agenda stipulates that Europe should continue to be a safe haven for those fleeing persecution, but also addressing the urgent need to bring EU together and collectively respond to the migration situation in accordance with the principles of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility that was incorporated into EU primary law through article 80 TFEU. There is currently a reform of the Union’s existing legislation governing asylum and immigration policies in progress to ensure a humane and efficient framework. The massive influx of third country nationals to Europe in 2014 and 2015 has revealed significant structural weaknesses and shortcomings in the current framework. Burden-sharing that relates to the reception of asylum seekers in the internal dimension of EU can be divided in three categories; sharing money, sharing people and sharing norms. This thesis will primarily focus on the sharing of people. Several attempts have been made throughout the years to create a people sharing mechanism within the Union without much success. In the fall 2015, a temporary relocation system was put in place with the aim to relieve the extreme pressure put on Italy and Greece as a result of the current migration crisis. The EU Temporary Relocation System also lays the foundation for a proposal of including a permanent relocation mechanism into the EU framework for future situations of mass influx of asylum seekers. The European Commissions proposal is based on article 78 (2) TFEU, which is the the precursor of a lasting solution on relocation, that should be triggered in crisis situations. The purpose is to create a mechanism that should be rapidly triggered in respect of any Member State that experiences a crisis situation of such a magnitude as to put under significant strain, even for well prepared and functioning asylum systems. The proposal aims at ensuring a fair sharing of responsibilities and upholding solidarity between Member States. By evaluating the people sharing mechanism put in place as a response by the international community to the Kosovo refugee crisis more than a decade ago, and todays EU Temporary Relocation System, the purpose of this thesis is to draw conclusion from the past, identifying the characteristics to keep and lessons to be learned in order to create an effective intra-EU people sharing mechanism.