The Dublin Regulation establishes the Member State responsible for the examination of the asylum application and Ms Von der Leyen has made it clear that Europe needs a new way of dealing with migration. Immigration was one of the reasons 17.4 million UK citizens voted to leave the Brussels bloc in the 2016 referendum.
The President-elect of the European Commission said: “I will propose a new pact on migration and asylum, including the relaunch of the Dublin reform.
“I’ve never really understood why Dublin started with the simple equation: Where a migrant first stepped foot in the EU, that’s where he or she must stay.
“Migration takes place by land or sea. We can only have stability on our external borders if we provide sufficient help to member states that are exposed to a lot of migration pressure because of their position on the map.”
She made the pledge in a bid to win confirmation of the EU’s top job.
Ms von der Leyen said she was ready to overhaul the EU’s Dublin convention, under which asylum seekers must seek asylum in the first EU country that they set foot in.
She said to the German media publication, Bild: “We must reform Dublin to achieve more fairness and burden-sharing”.
Italy and Greece have become the main entry points for irregular migrants due to their long sea and land borders.
As a result, this ‘first state of arrival’ rule puts a burden on them.
The Dublin regulation determines which EU country is responsible for processing applications for international protection.
The European Parliament’s suggestions for a new Dublin regulation would mean that the country in which an asylum seeker would first arrive would no longer be automatically responsible for processing the asylum application.
Countries which refuse to participate in the transfer of asylum seekers could lose EU funds.
Ms Von der Leyen has spoken out in the past that countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece are in geographically exposed situation and she has said there should be more solidarity.
The former German defence minister said: “If we work together we will be able to find solutions”.