The European Parliament adopted by 452 votes to 154, with 14 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Union Resettlement Framework and amending Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council.

The European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amends the Commission's proposal as follows:

Subject matter

The proposed Regulation establishes:

- a Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework for the admission of third-country nationals or stateless persons to the territory of the Member States with a view to granting them international protection; or humanitarian status under national law which provides for rights and obligations equivalent to those for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection; and

- rules on the admission , by means of resettlement or humanitarian admission, of third-country nationals or stateless persons to the territory of the Member States for the purpose of implementing this Regulation.

This Regulation does not establish a right of third-country nationals or stateless persons to request admission, or to be admitted, to the territory of a Member State. It does not impose an obligation on Member States to admit a third-country national or a stateless person.

Member States should contribute to the Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Plan on a voluntary basis .

This Regulation is based on the full and inclusive application of the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, as supplemented by the New York Protocol of 31 January 1967 (the ‘Geneva Convention’).

Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Framework

The Union Framework should:

- provide for the legal and safe arrival to the territory of a Member State of third-country nationals or stateless persons who are eligible for admission;

- contribute to increasing the Union’s contribution to international resettlement and humanitarian admission initiatives with a view to increasing the overall number of available places for resettlement and humanitarian admission;

- contribute to strengthening the Union’s partnerships with third countries in regions to which a large number of persons in need of international protection has been displaced.

The determination of the regions or third countries from which Union resettlement or humanitarian admission occurs should primarily have as a basis: (a) the UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs; (b) the scope for improving the protection environment and increasing the protection space in third countries; (c) the scale and content of commitments to resettlement or humanitarian admission undertaken by third countries with a view to collectively contributing to meeting the UNHCR Global Resettlement Needs.

Eligibility for admission

The Regulation defines a common procedure, as well as common eligibility criteria and grounds for refusal of admission, and common principles regarding the status to be granted to persons admitted.

To be eligible for admission, a third-country national or stateless person should also fall within at least one of the following categories: women and girls at risk; persons with legal and/or physical protection needs, including as regards protection from refoulement; victims of violence or torture, unaccompanied minors, persons with medical needs or persons with disabilities or persons in a protracted refugee situation.

In order to ensure family unity , all family members in relation to whom a Member State intends to conduct an admission procedure, who are eligible and who do not fall under the grounds for refusal should, as a rule and to the extent possible, be admitted together . Should this not be possible, family members not admitted together should be admitted as soon as possible at a later stage.

Admission may be refused to: (a) persons who, during the three years before admission, have not given or have withdrawn consent to be admitted to a particular Member State; (b) persons who have committed one or more crimes which would be punishable with a maximum sentence of at least one year of imprisonment had they been committed in the Member State examining the admission file, unless the prosecution or the punishment would have been statute ‑ barred.

The admission procedure should apply to third-country nationals or stateless persons who have given their consent to be admitted and who have not subsequently withdrawn their consent.

Common procedure

An admission procedure consists of the following stages: referral, where applicable, identification, registration, assessment and a conclusion on admission, as well as, in the case of resettlement, a decision on granting international protection or, in the case of humanitarian admission, a decision on granting international protection or humanitarian status under national law. A positive conclusion on admission means that a person in relation to whom an admission procedure has been carried out for the purpose of resettlement or humanitarian admission has been accepted for admission by the Member State that reached that conclusion. In the case of an emergency admission, the assessment of the admission requirements established under this Regulation should be accelerated.

Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Plan

Based on a proposal from the Commission, the Council should adopt, by means of an implementing act, a two-year Union Resettlement and Humanitarian Admission Plan (Union Plan) in the year before the two-year period in which it is to be implemented. The Commission should inform the European Parliament of its proposed draft Union Plan without delay, and the Council should keep the European Parliament regularly informed of progress relating to the adoption of the Union Plan.

The Union Plan should include: (a) the total number of persons to be admitted to the territory of the Member States, the proportion of persons subject to resettlement being not less than approximately 60 % of the total number of persons to be admitted; (b) details about the participation of the Member States and their contributions to the total number of persons to be admitted and the proportion of the persons who are to be subject to resettlement, to humanitarian admission and to emergency admission.

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted a report by Malin BJÖRK (GUE/NGL, SE) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Union Resettlement Framework and amending Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council.

The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position in first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows:

A durable solution : Members stressed that resettlement is a well-established act of solidarity with refugee-hosting countries based on humanitarian needs . It is a tool for protection, and it is a responsibility-sharing mechanism.

The Union Resettlement Framework shall:

guarantee the legal and safe transfer and arrival of third-country nationals and stateless persons who are among the most vulnerable persons in need of international protection to the territory of the Member States with a view to providing them with a durable solution; encourage all Member States to gradually increase their resettlement efforts and the overall number of available resettlement places, as well as support and facilitate the reception and integration of resettled persons; contribute to international resettlement initiatives , including through the strategic use of resettlement, particularly in protracted refugee situations.

In determining the regions or third countries from which resettlement shall occur, Members suggested taking into consideration:

the number of vulnerable persons in need of international protection as specified in the annual UNHCR Projected Global Resettlement Needs report ; third countries and regions hosting protracted refugee situations.

Eligibility: if one family member is being considered for resettlement (e.g. on protection grounds), Member States should seek to ensure, in line with the principle of family unity , that all of the person’s family members, including dependent non-nuclear family members, are resettled together.

Persons who have committed a serious non-political crime and persons for whom there are serious grounds for considering that they are a danger to the public or national security or, public health, of the Member State examining the resettlement file are excluded from the eligibility criteria.

Two-yearly Union resettlement plan : every two years, the Commission should adopt delegated acts to supplement the regulation, in order to establish a resettlement plan for the Union.

The Union resettlement plan shall include a target number of persons to be resettled that should reflect at a minimum 20% of the Annual Projected Global Resettlement Needs, as well as an unallocated emergency quota, of persons to be resettled, to take into account urgent and emergency cases irrespective of the geographical priorities.

Where the combined voluntary participation of all Member States does not add up to 75% of the target number of persons to be resettled at the end of the two years period of the Union resettlement plan, the targeted Union resettlement schemes shall set the precise number of persons that each Member State shall resettle with the goal of reaching at least that percentage from the target number.

Targeted Union resettlement schemes : the Commission will have delegated in respect of establishing targeted Union resettlement schemes.

When implementing a targeted Union resettlement scheme, Member States shall, for the selection, primarily rely on identification and submission of cases by the UNHCR. Other actors for identification may be Member States or relevant organisations.

Ordinary procedure : after identifying third-country nationals or stateless persons, Member States shall perform appropriate security checks against relevant Union and national databases, including the Schengen Information System.

A decision on resettlement should be made no later than eight months after the registration of the persons concerned, which may be extended by up to three months.

After taking a decision, Member States should inform the persons concerned of their rights and obligations, including the rights and obligations arising from refugee status or subsidiary protection.

In the event of a negative decision, no resettlement of the person concerned may take place in the Member State that took the decision. The reason for the rejection should be communicated in a reasoned opinion to UNHCR and other Member States.

Emergency procedure : Members proposed introducing an emergency procedure, with security checks at the same level as in the ordinary procedure.

As part of the emergency procedure, the submission of urgent UNHCR resettlement cases should lead to an expedited assessment of compliance with the requirements and selection criteria established by the Regulation.

Urgent resettlement files should not necessarily be linked to geographic priorities and emergency places should be about 10% of the target .

High-Level Resettlement Committee : Members considered that this Committee should align its work with that of international resettlement structures, particularly the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement and UNHCR's Annual Projected Global Resettlement Needs. The main task of the Committee shall be to outline the main components of the Union resettlement plan as well as the different targeted Union resettlement schemes, in particular making recommendations on the number of persons to be resettled, the equitable distribution of those persons among the Member States, the third countries from which resettlements should be undertaken, and the opportunities for strategic use of resettlement.

Role of the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA): the role of the EUAA would be to support Member States in their resettlement efforts as well as to build their capacity in this area. At the request of Member States, the EUAA would provide support for the implementation of the Union Resettlement Framework.

PURPOSE: to establish a Union Resettlement Framework and amending Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 of the European Parliament and the Council establishing the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF).

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: the Union is working towards an integrated, sustainable and holistic migration policy, based on solidarity and fair sharing of responsibilities, which can function effectively both in times of calm and crisis. The European Agenda on Migration laid the foundation for the Commission's continuous work to address both the immediate and the long-term challenges of managing migration flows effectively and comprehensively. It is a tool of international solidarity and responsibility sharing with third countries to which or within which a large number of persons in need of international protection has been displaced.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that the number of people in need of resettlement in 2017 will surpass 1.19 million worldwide, while only approximately 80 000 persons were resettled worldwide in 2015. UNHCR has over the past years urged the Union and its Member States to increase commitments to receive refugees through sustainable resettlement programmes, among others, by endorsing the 2012 campaign led by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and five non-governmental organisations active in the field of refugee protection, to resettle 20 000 people every year by 2020 .

Against this backdrop, the Commission aims to create a more structured, harmonised, and permanent framework for resettlement across the Union. Based on the experience gained through national resettlement programmes, this legislative proposal aims to establish a Union Resettlement Framework with the objective to facilitate the Union policy on resettlement and provide for a collective and harmonised approach with a unified procedure.

To ensure compatibility with the asylum acquis, persons selected for resettlement should be granted international protection . Accordingly, the provisions on the content of international protection contained in the asylum acquis should apply once resettled persons are on the territory of the Member States.

The proposed Regulation is an essential part of the Common European Asylum System and is fully consistent with the first package of legislative proposals to reform it:

a proposal replacing the Asylum Procedures Directive with a Regulation, harmonising the current disparate procedural arrangements in all Member States and creating a genuine common procedure;

a proposal replacing the Qualification Directive with a Regulation , setting uniform standards for the recognition of persons in need of protection and the rights granted to beneficiaries of international protection;

a proposal revising the Reception Conditions Directive ;

CONTENT: the proposal establishes a Union Resettlement Framework for the annual resettlement of a certain number of third-country nationals or stateless persons to the territory of the Member States.

The main elements of the proposal are:

- Resettlement : this means the admission to the territory of the Member States of third country nationals in need of international protection who have been displaced from or within their country of nationality, for the purpose of granting them international protection.

- Regions or third countries from which resettlement is to occur : in the implementing acts establishing targeted Union resettlement schemes and the annual Union resettlement plans, the Commission and the Council shall, when specifying the regions or third countries from which resettlement shall take place, take into account a number of factors which indicate the situation of persons in need of protection, the countries from which resettlement should take place, and the number of persons in need of international protection displaced to or within the specific regions or third countries.

- Persons to be resettled : this legislative proposal sets out eligibility criteria and exclusion grounds for persons who may be considered for resettlement. This proposal does not create any right to be admitted to the territory of the Member States for the purpose of being granted international protection.

Eligibility : the possibility for resettlement is foreseen for those third-country nationals or stateless persons who have been displaced not only to another country but also within their own country due to a well-founded fear of persecution or due to substantial grounds for believing that they would face a real risk of suffering serious harm. Persons falling within at least one of the following vulnerability categories – women and girls at risk; children and adolescents at risk, including unaccompanied children; survivors of violence; and persons with socioeconomic vulnerability – shall be eligible for resettlement under the targeted Union resettlement schemes. Persons with family links to third-country nationals or stateless persons or Union citizens legally residing in a Member State or who are dependent on them shall also be eligible. The inclusion of persons with socio-economic vulnerability and those with family links widens the classical resettlement categories ordinarily conducted through the UNHCR referral and follows the approach agreed within the Standard Operating Procedures guiding the implementation of the resettlement scheme with Turkey.

Exclusion : Member States should not resettle third-country nationals or stateless persons who do not meet the eligibility criteria or who fall within the scope of an obligatory exclusion ground. The obligatory exclusion grounds comprise: (a) the exclusion grounds of the Qualification Regulation – those applying to persons otherwise eligible for subsidiary protection are also to be applied to persons qualifying as refugees; (b) the grounds for refusing entry at the border, (c) the grounds for not renewing or for revoking a residence permit in accordance with the Qualification Regulation. Persons who have irregularly entered, irregularly stayed in, or attempted to irregularly enter into the territory of the Member States during the last five years prior to resettlement shall also be excluded. Persons to be excluded from resettlement include also those already resettled by another Member State under a targeted Union resettlement scheme or in the implementation of the existing Union resettlement initiatives. Exclusion also applies to third country nationals and stateless persons whom a Member State has during the last five years prior to resettlement refused to resettle.

- Standard Resettlement Procedures : this proposal sets common standard procedures building on the existing resettlement experience respecting two types of standard resettlement procedures:

1. Ordinary procedure : the ordinary procedure is based on a full refugee status determination in the third country and on Member States granting to the resettled third-country nationals or stateless persons, preferably, refugee status, or subsidiary status. The procedure should be conducted as soon as possible and within eight months from the moment when Member States have registered the third-country nationals or stateless persons. This period may be extended by four months.

The proposal details the different steps in the procedure which include: (i) Member States identify persons for whom they intend to conduct the resettlement procedure either through the referral by UNHCR, or where applicable, the [European Union Agency for Asylum] or relevant international bodies, or by themselves, without such referral;

(ii) after registering the third-country nationals or the stateless persons for whom they intend to conduct the resettlement procedure, Member States will assess whether these persons meet the eligibility criteria; (iii) in case of a positive decision Member States will grant to the persons to be resettled refugee status or subsidiary protection status. After a positive decision, Member States will offer to make all arrangements necessary for the departure of the third-country nationals or the stateless persons and, with a view to facilitating a rapid, smooth, and effective integration into the host society, offer a pre-departure orientation programme.

Resettlement should be the preferred avenue to international protection in the territory of the Member States and should not be duplicated by an asylum procedure . Accordingly, applications for international protection of persons resettled via an ordinary procedure, for whom a full assessment of their qualification as a refugee and eligibility as a beneficiary of subsidiary protection has been conducted, would not be admissible.

2. Expedited procedure : the expedited procedure is provided in cases where there are specific humanitarian grounds or urgent legal or physical protection needs , which warrant a rapid admission of third-country nationals or stateless persons to the territory of the Member States. Such a procedure should be conducted as soon as possible and within 4 four months from the moment when Member States have registered the third-country nationals or stateless persons. This period may be extended by two months.

While the same level of security checks should be conducted as in the ordinary procedure, the assessment of the international protection needs of third-country nationals or stateless persons should be limited to an assessment of their eligibility for subsidiary protection without assessing their qualification for refugee status.

In contrast with what applies in the case of the ordinary procedure, when persons are resettled through an expedited procedure, without a refugee qualification assessment being made, they should upon admission to the resettling Member State be admissible to apply for international protection . The Member State to which the person has been resettled should be responsible for the examination of such an application (the Asylum Procedures Regulation should foresee that Member States do not apply the first country of asylum and safe third country concepts when examining the application).

- Decision-making procedures : this proposal sets a framework which is intended to structure the way in which the Union will implement resettlement commitments. To be able to react to shifting migration flows and evolving international circumstances, however, the framework as such does not determine a number of variable elements, namely the scale of resettlement and the specific third countries or regions from which resettlement shall take place.

It is provided that:

A High-Level Resettlement Committee chaired by the Commission will be established to provide political guidance for the implementation of the Union Resettlement Framework. Representatives of the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the Member States will take part in the committee as well as representatives of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland if these Associated States have indicated their intention to be associated with the implementation of the annual Union Resettlement Framework;

Council Implementing Act establishing an annual Union resettlement plan which determines the maximum total number of persons to be resettled and the number of persons each Member States is to resettle within this total;

Commission Implementing Act establishing a targeted Union resettlement scheme to be adopted by the Council and also taking into account the discussions within the High-Level Resettlement Committee. For each targeted Union resettlement scheme the Commission will set out a detailed justification, the precise number out of the total number of persons to be resettled and participation of the Member States as set out in the annual Union resettlement plan, as well as a description of the target group(s) of third-country nationals or stateless persons to be resettled and list a specific geographical area covering one or more third countries from which resettlement will take place. An ordinary procedure should be seen as the norm, unless an expedited procedure is warranted on humanitarian grounds.

- Cooperation : cooperation among various stakeholders is essential, including with the third countries, from which resettlement occurs. Given the expertise of the UNHCR in facilitating the different forms of admission of persons in need of international protection from third countries, to which they have been displaced to States willing to admit them, the UNHCR will continue to play a key role in resettlement under this proposal. Member States may also request other partners such as IOM or civil society organisations to assist them.

- Evaluation and Review : the Commission shall report on the application of this Regulation to the European Parliament and to the Council in due time for the review of this Regulation. The timing of the review of this legislative proposal should be aligned with that of Regulation (EU) No 516/2014 establishing the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund due to close links between the two acts.

Territorial provisions : in accordance with Protocol No 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland shall not take part in the adoption of this proposal but may decide, at any time after its adoption, that they accept that measure.

The same goes for Denmark, in accordance with Protocol No 22 as regards Denmark’s position, annexed to the TFEU.

Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein may decide to voluntarily participate in the Union Resettlement Framework established by this Regulation.

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: for each resettled person under this proposal Member States taking part in the AMIF will be entitled to EUR 10 000 from the Union's budget . The maximum total number of persons to be resettled to the Union each year will be determined through Council implementing acts establishing annual Union resettlement plans.

Member States shall only receive these funds when resettling through the Union Resettlement Framework. Resettlements under national resettlement schemes outside of this framework will not be supported financially by the Union's budget.

The financial year 2017 should be seen as a transitional year between the resettlement scheme conducted under the Conclusions of 20 July 2015 on resettlement and the entry into force of this proposal. Consequently the budgetary implications for 2017 should be lower than for the subsequent years.