A Serbian police officer stands in front of migrants who wait in line for lunch in the transit centre for refugees in Sid, about 100 km west from Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016. Paimages/Darko Vojinovic. All rights reserved.
The increase in the flows of asylum seekers towards the European Union in recent years has re-awakened the discussion over the meaning, extent and limits of the principle of solidarity in European asylum law.
In view of this politically sensitive and ongoing discussion, this contribution aims to assess the legal meaning of solidarity in the Common European Asylum System. I will attempt to demonstrate that the evolution and content of the principle of solidarity in both EU primary and secondary law is predominantly state-centred, with claims of solidarity being advanced primarily with states as reference points and as beneficiaries.
