Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/08 According to Swider and den Heijer, referring to Article 352 TFEU is unnecessary, as Article 79 TFEU on common immigration policy contains all the sufficient grounds in a more explicit (but still implicit) way.58 Interpreting Article 67(2) TFEU in conjunction with Article 79 TFEU leads us to the conclusion that stateless persons cannot be left out of the EU’s immigration policy.59 The recently registered Minority SafePack initiative endorses this statement. This initiative will likely play a further role in choosing the appropriate treaty basis for an EU legislative act. According to the preamble of Commission Decision 2017/652, “the annex to the proposed citizens’ initiative mentions (among others) the amendment of the EU legislation in order to guarantee approximately equal treatment for stateless persons and citizens of the Union, on the basis of Article 79(2) TFEU”.60 TFEU 79(2) grants capacity to the European Parliament and the Council to adopt legislative measures for the common immigration policy. Per existing literature, the best solution for EU law to address the identification and protection of stateless persons would be the adoption of a directive on stateless persons. The Meijers Committee, which is a standing committee of experts on international immigration, refugee, and criminal law in the Netherlands, called for an EU directive on the identification of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons in October 2014.61 The proposal suggests that common criteria should be developed in three areas: statelessness determination, the standard of treatment, and residence. It calls for a fair procedure for determining whether a person is stateless. There should be a common interpretation of the definition of statelessness according to the 1954 Convention, as well as a minimum set of procedural safeguards and evidentiary standards for determining statelessness.62 In recent literature, those who recognise the impending risk of Syrian children being left stateless in Europe also encourage the adoption of an EU directive on stateless persons.63 However, not all advocates of statelessness determination share this view. Gyulai has argued that “due to the lack of an explicit legal fundament in community law and the reluctance of Member States, it is very unlikely that the protection of (non-refugee) stateless persons would at any point be brought under the scope of common EU policies and legislation”.64 Indeed, Member States have been protective of their nationality matters, which was demonstrated in the reluctance to accept the concept of EU citizenship.65 However, in contrast to the prevention and reduction of statelessness, regulating the identification and protection of stateless persons would not affect sovereignty in the field of nationality.66 It would only mean the influence of EU law.67 According to Gyulai, in some cases, harmonisation efforts have led to the weakening of protection standards, which he refers to as the ‘race 58 Maarten den Heijer and Katja Swider, ‘Why Union Law Can and Should Protect Stateless Persons’, Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance Research Paper No. 2016-03, p. 21. Available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2823627 [accessed 18 April 2017] 59 Ibid. 60 Commission Decision (EU) 2017/652 of 29 March 2017 on the proposed citizens' initiative entitled ‘Minority SafePack — one million signatures for diversity in Europe’, preamble para. (4) point (h). 61 Meijers Committee, ‘A proposal for an EU directive on the identification of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons’ (13 October 2014), available at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201110/20111014ATT29336/20111014ATT29336EN. pdf [accessed 30 March 2017] 62 Ibid. 63 Katalin Berényi, ‘Statelessness and the refugee crisis in Europe’ (2016), Forced Migration Review 53, October 2016. 64 Gábor Gyulai, ‘Statelessness in the EU Framework for International Protection’, European Journal of Migration and Law 14 (2012), p. 294. 65 Maarten den Heijer and Katja Swider, ‘Why Union Law Can and Should Protect Stateless Persons’, Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance Research Paper No. 2016-03, p. 18. Available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2823627 [accessed 18 April 2017] 66 Ibid. 67 See, mutatis mutandis, CJEU case C-135/08 (Rottmann) 12