EU Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos announced that the EC would shortly make a formal proposal for changes in the Dublin rules on the processing of asylum-seekers. Under the current regulation, asylum-seekers should be processed in the EU country where they first ask for asylum. If the asylum-seeker crosses into a different EU country, he can be deported back. The current migration crisis has made the rules rather obsolete, however, as Chancellor Merkel admitted last year. The EC is thus expected to present some changes on 16 March. Rumors indicate that the current rules will not be altogether scrapped, but only softened. The Commissioner also expressed his hope that the temporary border controls introduced on many Schengen area borders will be abolished in December 2016. The situation should ameliorate by then. The 7 March EU-Turkey summit should be a step in that direction.

For more, click here.