#‎GoalforEU

Every day thousands of people fleeing persecution and war from their own countries seek international protection from the European Union: they are asylum seekers and therefore they must have access to fair and efficient asylum procedures. However, the European Union has failed to provide them with an effective and unified response, leaving Member States situated at the Union's external borders alone to deal with huge numbers of refugees. As a result, those Member States are facing considerable difficulties in providing asylum seekers with adequate and dignified assistance. In this situation an increasing number of refugees, trapped at the borders of Europe, are suffering a humanitarian crisis.

This crisis has resulted in a European Union that is divided and fragmented: Member States decided to build walls instead of expressing their solidarity with one another. We are perfectly aware that in the European Union, human rights are of the utmost importance. We want to ask our governments to take this crisis as an opportunity to build a better Europe, a place to be really proud of. We will not accept that people are left in such inhumane conditions.

We call on the European Council to define an immediate and effective Union-wide strategy to solve the refugee crisis. Therefore, we ask for:

The preservation of human rights on European soil

Asylum is a fundamental right: granting it is an international obligation under the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Refugees. In addition, Member States signed the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which on 1st December 2009, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, became legally binding on the EU institutions and on national governments.

As such, time has come for Member States to adhere to these obligations, rendering all these abstract rules a reality and not just words on paper. The European Union must prove its formal and legal commitment to the safeguarding of human rights by making every effort to effectively guarantee one of the most important rights of all: the right to asylum.

The preservation of the Schengen Area

The free movement of people is a central achievement of the European Union. Since the establishment of the Schengen Area, the European Union has become an area without internal borders. The recent migration phenomenon has, however, revealed deficiencies in parts of the Union's external borders and has led some Member States to close their internal borders or introduce temporary border controls, thus jeopardising one of the core aspects of the European Union.

We will not let this happen. Closing the borders – both internal and external – to each other is not a solution. On the contrary, it can only worsen the situation, increase hatred and undermine citizens' trust in EU institutions and the whole process of unification. The European Union must stay united and resolve this crisis together. Europe is built on bridges, not walls.

The reformation of the CEAS system, under the principle of solidarity

Since 1999, The European Union has been working to create a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and improve the current legislative framework. During the last few years, unfortunately, with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the deficiencies of the CEAS have been revealed. The failings of the Dublin System, which gave exclusive responsibility to some Member States, who had to deal with 80% of all asylum requests submitted in the European Union, are now well known. We are deeply convinced that, as set out in Article 80 TFEU, solidarity must be the principle upon which Union action on migration is based.

As such, we urge the European Council to follow up on all the measures set out in the European Parliament “Report on the situation in the Mediterranean and the need for a holistic EU approach to migration”, adopted in Strasbourg on the 12th April 2016.

This is our Goal for Europe.

Brussels, 08.06.2016