(Brussels) “The European asylum system is one of the key issues determining how Europe’s future will develop. As rapporteur, my goal is to create a truly new asylum system, based on solidarity, with clear rules and incentives to follow them, both for asylum seekers and for all Member States”. Swedish MEP Cecilia Wikström is the rapporteur on the text approved today by the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee with the proposals for a new Dublin Regulation to “remedy current weaknesses” in the European Union’s asylum system and to “create a robust system for the future”. The main point of the text adopted is that the “first country of arrival would no longer be automatically responsible for asylum seekers”. Instead, the assignment of responsibility would be based, as called for by Parliament, on the real “links” to a Member State, such as family, prior residence or studies. “If no such link exists, asylum seekers would automatically be assigned to an EU Member State according to a fixed distribution key”, after being registered upon their arrival, and “after a security check and swift assessment of their eligibility for being accepted”. This is to avoid that “front line” Member States, like Italy or Greece, “shoulder a disproportionate share of Europe’s international obligations to protect people in need”. Furthermore, Member States that do not follow the rules would have “their access to EU funds reduced”, according to the draft negotiating mandate for a new Dublin regulation. The draft report prepared by Cecilia Wikström was approved by 43 votes to 16, with no abstentions. The text constitutes the Parliament’s negotiating mandate for talks with Member States in the Council. The decision by the Civil Liberties Committee will now have to be formally confirmed by the Plenary during its November session in Strasbourg. The text will then go to the Council, where the Governments of Member States are represented; surely, the report that was approved by the Parliament’s Committee – very advanced in content – and that might be voted on in plenary, will meet with obstacles and opposition from several Member States.