Temporary Protection in the Law of the European Union: Trends and Prospects

Introduction. Temporary protection is a form of international protection that is designed to provide a minimum level of protection in situations involv­ing large influxes of forced migrants. The 1951 Refu­gee Convention does not contain provisions dealing with mass influx situations. Within the framework of the United Nations (hereinafter referred to as the UN) since the 80s. XX century began to pay atten­tion to situations associated with mass influx (mass influx) or mass exodus (mass exodus), in particular, the Executive Committee of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (hereinaf­ter referred to as UNHCR) adopted a number of con­clusions regarding this issue. However, all interna­tional legal acts adopted at the universal level were of a recommendatory nature. At regional European level, Directive 2001/55/EC was adopted within the European Union (EU) on minimum standards for the provision of temporary protection in cases of mass influxes of displaced persons and on measures to maintain a balance in the efforts of Member States in relation to reception and consequences such a reception in 2001 This article makes an attempt to reveal the history of the development of temporary protection, its content and features of application in the EU. The authors also touch on the reasons for the different application of temporary protection in EU member states.  

Materials and methods. The methodological basis of the study was the following general scientific and special methods of cognition of legal phenom­ena and processes: historical and legal comparative method; method of system-structural analysis; for­mal logical method.  

Research results. As a result of the analysis, the authors found that when providing temporary pro­tection, a collective (group) approach is used to con­sider applications for asylum, rather than an indi­vidual one. This approach is intermediate and should not exclude the possibility of subsequently applying for refugee status. In addition, EU Member States at national level can extend the application of the Tem­porary Protection Directive 2001 across persons, space and time.  

Discussion and conclusion. The history of the development of temporary protection, its content and features of application in the EU are analyzed; it is justified that the decision to apply temporary protection is a politically motivated decision. It is concluded that despite the application of temporary protection in connection with events taking place in Ukraine, EU member states are still unable to agree on common measures to apply the principle of soli­darity and fair sharing of responsibility, which is en­shrined in the EU's founding instruments.

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