EU in new push to coordinate asylum policy

EU interior ministers will today study a proposal for "rapid reaction" teams of medics and asylum experts to deal with sudden influxes of migrants, as part of the bloc's efforts to better coordinate asylum policy.

The overall number of asylum-seekers to the EU is falling, yet some states such as Malta and Slovakia are facing an increase. The tiny Italian island of Lampedusa received 600 illegal immigrants in one day last May.

The European Commission wants all EU states to help those countries affected by such influxes, with one proposal being the creation by next year of mobile units of interpreters, medics and asylum experts drawn from across the EU.

"It is not fair if member states are punished because of their geographical location," said a Commission spokesman of the greater exposure of the Mediterranean EU states to inflows.

Ministers gave initial backing to the idea last month but they are not expected to give final approval yet. Germany and some other EU states have in the past proven reluctant to share the cost of dealing with migrant influxes that affect them less.

Efforts to coordinate EU policy in migration and asylum policy have often run up against deep-rooted divergences among member states because of their different locations within the bloc and historic ties with other countries. EU states have so far failed to agree on which countries can be deemed "safe" enough that asylum requests from their citizens can be dismissed as unwarranted.

While ministers will take a fresh look at that project today, the Commission is also urging them to examine a less ambitious idea to share nationally held data on migrants' countries of origin.

EU officials believe that if member states were to share such data, their views on which migrants deserve asylum might also converge more.

"It is more achievable and more helpful than a common list," one EU diplomat said, while another said it would be a useful first step.

Ministers are also seen wrangling over a French proposal to nearly double the price of EU visa applications from €35 to €60, EU diplomats said.

Some think the move is needed to pay for new security technology, such as biometrics, that the bloc wants increasingly to introduce at its border posts to check entrants.

But new eastern member states such as Poland argue the move would hit those citizens of the EU's poorer neighbours to the east who need to regularly travel into the bloc to visit family.