The qualification directive; central themes, problem issues, and implementation in selected member states

On 10 October 2006, the deadline for the implementation of the Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004, on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third-country nationals or stateless persons as refugees or as persons who otherwise need international protection and the content of the protection granted (Qualification Directive) expired. By 9 October only 6 Member States (France, Austria, Luxembourg, Latvia, Slovenia and Estonia) had notified the European Commission on the measures taken for transposition. This book is on the central themes, problem issues, and the implementation of the Qualification Directive. The book is divided in three sections. The first section goes into the central themes of the Qualification Directive. The second part of the book is on the problem issues of the Qualification Directive. The third part of the book focuses on the implementation of the Qualification Directive in a selected number of Member States. The other six contributions are on the implementation of the Qualification Directive in selected Member States. Belgium, Sweden, France, Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania. This book offers insight in all the different aspects of the Qualification Directive: the central themes, the problem issues and the implementation. It emerges that the Qualification Directive may play a valuable role with regard to the recognition of refugees and persons benefiting from subsidiary protection in establishing core binding obligations on member states. It is also clear that the Qualification Directive will and cannot overrule the Refugee Convention. The judicial meaning of the refugee concept is now to be found in the Refugee Convention read together with the Qualification Directive. I will conclude therefore with a reference to preamble 3 of the Qualification Directive: ‘The Geneva Convention and Protocol provide the cornerstone of the international legal regime for the protection of refugees’.