This report aims:

1) To provide a comprehensive overview of the number and nature of applications for international protection made in the EU-28 and how they were processed by the Member States (MS).

2013 marked the highest level of applications for international protection recorded in the EU28 since the beginning of EU-level data collection with 435,760 persons applying (or 859 applicants per million inhabitants).

The highest numbers of asylum applicants were recorded for citizens of Syria, Russian Federation and the Western Balkan countries  while the main receiving Member States (MS) were Germany, France, Sweden, United Kingdom and Italy.

2) To indicate important developments at both EU and national level.

The key development in 2013 was the completion of the new asylum acquis package, consisting of the recast Reception Conditions Directive, recast Asylum Procedures Directive, recast Dublin Regulation, and the recast Eurodac Regulation. Among key points of the new package, the recast Dublin Regulation in Article 33 envisages an Early Warning, Preparedness and Crisis Management Mechanism, whereby EASO will have a role in providing information to the Commission concerning a risk of particular pressure on a Member State’s asylum system or problems in its functioning, as well as the analysis of preventive and crisis management action plans elaborated by the MS.

3) To describe the functioning of the Common European Asylum System in each of its key aspects.

EASO provided operational support to Greece, Bulgaria and Italy in 2013 in areas including training, Country of Origin Information and statistics and has recently signed a Special Support Plan with Cyprus.

The EASO Annual Report also serves as a useful tool for national and EU policy-makers helping to identify areas where improvement is most needed (and thus where EASO and other key stakeholders should focus their future efforts), in line with its declared purpose of improving the quality, consistency and effectiveness of the CEAS.

More information can be found on the website of EASO

A video shows the press conference given by Cecilia Malmström, Member of the EC in charge of Home Affairs, and Rob Visser, Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), on this report.