Estonia does not support changing Dublin system
Estonia does not support changing the European Union's Dublin system, according to which the state which the asylum seeker enters first has to process the application, the Ministry of the Interior said.
"We don't support making principled changes in the present system, but we do think it necessary to review and correct smaller problems and obstacles that have arisen on the practical level," deputy secretary general of the Interior Ministry for law enforcement and migration policy Raivo Kuut said in answer to a question by BNS regarding reports that the European Commission is planning to change the Dublin system.
Financial Times wrote on Wednesday that the European Commission has come to a conclusion that the Dublin regulation is dated and unfair, and therefore a plan is to be drawn up by March to abandon it.
"Today the European Union states where refugees first arrive experience a big pressure and these states have to be helped. But for that the Dublin system doesn't have to be changed -- we hereby have to differentiate between a crisis situation and a regular situation," Kuut stressed.
"In our opinion measures have to be created so that when a crisis situation arises, the joint resources of the European border agency Frontex could be used as well as the relocation of people in need of international protection by the decision of the European Commission," Kuut said.
According to Kuut, the prerequisite for a common asylum system is the control of external borders and a successful way of sending back people, and changing the Dublin system without improving the aforementioned measures does not bring along desired changes.