The establishment of asylum systems in Eastern European countries (EECs) aspiring to European Union (EU) membership represents a process guided by EU conditionality (Byrne 2003, 343). Until the 2005 Hague Programme Action Plan and the 2007 Green Paper on the Future of the European Asylum System (hereafter 2007 Green Paper), EU membership conditionality aimed at assisting EECs to establish asylum systems compatible with the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 New York Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (hereafter 1951 Geneva Convention). However, with the 2007 Green Paper and its fundamental principle of solidarity and burden sharing, it became clearer that the EU expects its aspirants to establish asylum systems that would also contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of the existing member countries' asylum systems. In order to fulfill such a task, Eastern European countries need asylum systems compatible with those of the EU countries, as well as policies consistent with the common European asylum policy. However, in some of the Eastern European countries, these institutions still do not serve any domestic need.

The EU's interest in Balkan asylum systems has shifted from initial concerns with regional peace and stability and preventing masses of refugees from seeking shelter in EU member countries to establishing asylum systems that will prevent migration through the region into EU member countries (Feijen 2007). Such policies have been associated with the conflicting dichotomy between principles of human rights and EU internal security (Peshkopia 2005a, 2005c).