Towards a common European asylum system: the refugee protection in the EU and the need for a more comprehensive burden-sharing approach

Abstract

The central object of this thesis is the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which consists in the establishment of a common asylum procedure and a uniform status valid throughout the EU. Its main objective is to analyse the current state of the CEAS in order to find out what direction this System has been taking during its implementation, and visualise how the use of a more comprehensive burden-sharing approach influence on the CEAS second phase of implementation. Secondary objectives consist in providing a brief overview of the history of international recognition of refugees and analysing the gradual development of asylum matters at the EU level, by exploring how asylum law is formed, transformed and reformed in Europe. The study makes use of a qualitative approach and the method of case study, and is done by means of collection and analysis of relevant primary and secondary sources. This thesis is structured in six chapters, each chapter presenting a specific objective that will lead to the response to the research questions. The conclusions intend to summarise the main aspects and the outcome of this research and also provide views and expectations concerning the future direction of the Common European Asylum System. Key-words: Common European Asylum System, Burden-sharing, Refugee protection, EU asylum law, EU asylum policy.