The European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), the network of support to refugees composed of some seventy NGOs that operate in 28 European countries, has for many years been alert to the development of EU policy in the fields of asylum and immigration. ECRE considers it essential to facilitate the legal assess to the countries of the EU for those who have a sincere need for protection. It urges a system of protection based on the safeguard of rights, and closer cooperation with the NGOs and with the UN High Commission for Refugees. At the same time, it denounces the preoccupation with a constant reduction (recognized also by the European Commission) in the granting of the status of refugee in the EU countries, due to the fact that access to asylum is often subordinated to measures of excessive control that prevent refugees from gaining access to safe territories in spite of the abandonment of widespread “zero immigration” policies. The network headed by the ECRE insists on the need to define procedural standards that reflect not the minimal measures, but the European practices that combine the protection of the right to seek asylum, respect for asylum-seekers and the necessary controls. G.A.G.
