Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/08 party to the 1954 Convention, and only 14 States8 have functioning statelessness-specific protection regimes in place in their national legislations.9 Out of these 14 countries, 10 are in Europe.10 This article argues that the harmonisation of standards on statelessness determination procedures at the European level would enhance the current national efforts in the identification and protection of stateless persons. To this end, European states need to facilitate the creation of a regional legal instrument, taking advantage of the capacities of the powerful international organisations that exist in the region: the European Union and the Council of Europe. The legal instrument should serve as an incentive for States to establish statelessness determination procedures and to set out regionally harmonised minimum standards. For the purposes of this work, Europe is defined as the geographical region comprising of 50 states: the 47 member States of the Council of Europe, plus Belarus, the Holy See and Kosovo (UNSCR 1244/99).11 This study is intended as an advocacy-oriented research, whereby the aim is to identify problems and suggest possible solutions. To this end, the work advocates for the establishment of statelessness determination procedures at the national level; it argues for the regional harmonisation of standards instead of the ‘unification’ of the procedures. Why should statelessness determination procedures be harmonised at the European level? In what way could this be done? This study seeks to answer these questions by shedding light on different aspects of the phenomenon of statelessness and its legal and policy environment in contemporary Europe. 2. Overview: statelessness determination at the domestic and European levels 2.1. Existing statelessness determination procedures States have the primary responsibility to identify and protect stateless persons in their territories. The States parties to the 1954 Convention have committed themselves to implement it, but they have been granted the freedom to do so in accordance with their own legal systems. The phenomenon of statelessness shows diverse profiles in each European country; consequently, every state has a different approach to addressing it. There are states that have proper statelessness determination procedures in place, while others—such as the Czech Republic and Germany—argue that their legal systems allow for the direct application of the 1954 Convention, and other provisions in their legislation protect stateless persons adequately.12 For this reason, it is not simply ‘black or white’ whether a state has an SDP established in its domestic law. In this regard, the author relies on the views of the European Network on Statelessness, which only calls such procedures ‘SDPs’ if they are effective, and formalised in law (i.e. their operation is not solely on an ad hoc basis).13 Along these lines, at the time of writing, 10 European countries have functioning SDPs in place. These are: France, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244/99), the Republic of Moldova, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. ‘Partially built’ 8 France, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Kosovo, Moldova, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and the Philippines. 9 Outside of Europe, only Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and the Philippines have established SDPs at the time of writing. ‘Partially built’ systems include Brazil and Peru. Source: Gábor Gyulai, Presentation on Statelessness for the Serbian Government delegation: General Framework and State Practice, held at UNHCR Regional Representation for Central Europe (4 November 2014). Updated according to correspondence with Gábor Gyulai on 30 October 2017. 10 See part 2.1. 11 For the member States of the Council of Europe, please refer to: http://www.coe.int/en/web/about-us/ourmember-states;jsessionid=ABC7BCB90C679DE9AC5F711702C799AD [accessed 12 November 2016] 12 Katia Bianchini, ‘A Comparative Analysis of Statelessness Determination Procedures in 10 EU States’ (2017), International Journal of Refugee Law, Vol 29, No 1, pp. 42–83. 13 European Network on Statelessness, ‘Statelessness determination and the protection status of stateless persons’ (2013), available at: http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/53162a2f4.pdf [accessed 27 March 2017] 6