Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us today.
I want to thank the officials from the European Commission and from the Federal Government of Germany for joining us today.
We're in the midst of evaluating this new legislation, as you may very well know, which we believe is going to speed up our system. One of the things that is clogging our system, one of the elements, is that we are getting a large percentage of claimants—particularly from the European Union, I might add—who end up clogging the system. At some point throughout the processing of their claim, they end up abandoning their claim and returning to their home country.
I was wondering if I could get your opinion on that. First of all, are you seeing that same phenomenon in the EU? Second, in your opinion, would someone who is genuinely fleeing from persecution of some nature abandon a claim in a free and democratic country like Canada and return to the place where they're potentially in danger?
Perhaps we can start with our German officials and then go to the European Commission.
Mr. Brumberg?