The crisis of the common asylum policy in the European Union

The European Union's asylum policy now has a face. It is that of Aylan, the drowned Syrian child lying alongside his brother on a Mediterranean beach. The macabre reality suffered by the thousands of dead migrants who preceded him heralded a turning point in the existential crisis of the common asylum policy. This has now been brought into the one realm of any worth: that of the Union's values. To form an opinion we have to know what we are talking about. The extent of the crisis explains the difficulty in responding to it.