Ahead of the publication of the European Commission's proposal on revising the Dublin agreement – which puts responsibility for asylum seekers in the hands of the European country they first arrive in – the president of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, stated:
 
"I made it very clear to Mr Juncker: reviewing the Dublin agreement cannot merely be a cosmetic exercise. The Dublin agreement was buried when thousands of innocent people drowned in the Mediterranean Sea or suffered along the Balkan route.
 
"If the EU Commission submits an inadequate proposal, the S&D Group will firmly oppose it. The EU's borders are European ones. The coastguard has been imagined as a European force. The asylum policy must be a European one too, based on solidarity and on a binding relocation mechanism.
 
"We therefore call on the EU Commission to show coherence and courage by finally proposing a genuine and functional European asylum policy."