Section 4. Initiatives for more streamlined and harmonised asylum procedures

CEAS is based on the principle of common standards to grant international protection, while ensuring fair and efficient procedures. The aim is that similar asylum cases are treated in a similar manner in all Member States, leading to uniform decision-making and convergence across the EU, while ensuring that an individual assessment is provided in each case.

The procedures foreseen in the recast APD aim to ensure that decisions on applications for international protection are taken on the basis of facts and by persons with appropriate knowledge and training, after an adequate and complete examination has been undertaken without undue delay and subject to remedies. Within this framework, Member States have established their asylum systems and procedures in various ways.

The APR aims to further replace disparate asylum procedures with a common procedure which is governed by the same rules, achieve a high level of convergence and limit the secondary movement of applicants for international protection between Member States due to differences in legal frameworks. The regulation sets the guarantees and rights which are afforded to applicants, including the right to free legal counselling in the administrative procedure, legal assistance and representation in the appeal procedure and comprehensive information on the asylum procedure in a language understood by the applicant.