The project aims at various objectives: Firstly, a new theoretical framework for the process of the Common European Asylum System’s “multilevel governance” will be developed and empirically tested; secondly, a critical evaluation of the Common European Asylum System will be carried out and discrepancies between EU standards of refugee reception and national legislation and their implementation will be identified and analyzed. Another aim is the elaboration of new policies by constructing different alternatives of implementing a common European Asylum System, subsequently resulting in a valid assessment which degree of harmonization (with regard to legislation and implementation) and solidarity is possible and necessary.