Article 78 [Common Policy on Asylum]

Cooperation on asylum began as a so-called flanking measure that compensated states for their loss of control options following the abolition of border controls within the Schengen area. The Schengen Implementing Convention of 1990 contained a first set of rules on the responsibility for processing applications for asylum. In parallel, all MSs, including those that did not join the Schengen area initially, agreed upon the Dublin Convention of 1990 concerning asylum jurisdiction, which eventually entered into force in September 1997 after a drawn-out ratification process. The arrangements pursued a double objective. Firstly, they were meant to prevent “forum shopping”, a term used to describe situations where asylum seekers leave for countries with generous reception conditions or recognition quota. Secondly, the coordination of asylum jurisdiction was destined to counter the phenomenon of “refugees in orbit” where applicants are “referred successively from one Member State to another without any of these States acknowledging itself to be competent to examine the application”.