Has the Temporary Protection Directive Become Obsolete? An Examination of the Directive and its Lack of Implementation in view of the Recent Asylum Crisis in the Mediterranean

Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 on Minimum Standards for Giving Temporary Protection (the Temporary Protection Directive) entered in force in 2001; it was the first European Union (EU) directive on international protection that was adopted after the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1999. The Directive defines temporary protection as an exceptional procedure to be used in mass influx situations when persons displaced by an armed conflict or violence cannot be returned to their country of origin. The Directive introduces a comprehensive framework to deal with mass influx situations and is a practical tool that protects large groups of individuals seeking refuge in Europe without requiring individual status determination. Despite these positive aspects, the Temporary Protection Directive has yet to be implemented. The objective of the present Chapter is to discuss the lack of implementation of the Directive in the past 13 years and explore the reasons behind this.