Two Bulgarian MEPs of the European People's Party/GERB, Mariya Gabriel and Emil Radev, want EU asylum legislation amended so as to reduce migrant pressure on Bulgaria, the GERB party said on its website.

They have introduced proposals to the Dublin Regulation which makes the EU Member State through which an asylum seeker first entered the EU responsible to examine an application for asylum.

Gabriel and Radev propose the responsibility of the Member State of first entry to be cancelled so as to ease the pressure on Bulgaria for processing the applications of thousands of irregular migrants from Turkey. The MEPs argue that responsibility should be assumed by the Member State of first application, regardless of whether it is the State of first entry. 

This includes eliminating the possibility to return migrants to Bulgaria under the effective regulation. The two MEPs propose that if an asylum seeker leaves a Member State for more than three months, especially after a negative decision or a repatriation decision, a Member State stops being responsible for the applicant.