European Parliament asks member states to grant protection to Edward Snowden

This.

While it is overall encouraging, I was also taken aback by the very narrow margin this resolution was passed (285 to 281).

It is obviously far less than what the title implies or what (some) people would like. But the power of parliament's non-binding resolutions to define the debate shouldn't be underestimated.

The Parliament has, in the last 10 years and especially under its current President Schulz redefined the balance of power vis-a-vis the Commission and the Council. One prominent recent example was the so-called "Spitzenkandidat-System" whereby the parties nominate a candidate for the Commission presidency and then whichever party wins the most seats in parliament gets its nominee appointed.

Note that there were no laws mandating such a system and that it was actively opposed by quite a few powerful people and institutions, such as Chancellor Merkel.But Schulz et al did an excellent job of (a) exploiting parliament's democratic legitimacy as the only elected EU body and (b) showing the heads of states some fine instruments by which Parliament could have stalled the agenda.

Sorry for the wall of text. tl/dr: the EU parliament has acquired an aura that makes even non-binding resolutions much more relevant than, say, a few op-eds or press releases.

Yes, that was bad. Title changed from "Europe has voted to offer Edward Snowden asylum".

Also this is a dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10471172 as teh_kiev pointed out in another comment.

Asylum is within the jurisdiction of the European Union, which, for example established minimum standards for the asylum process in 2004. These rights can and have been held up by the courts. In this regard, the European Union has created the law that "offers people asylum" even if the executive individual decisions are left to the member states.

There's also the Dublin Agreement which (even if it's falling apart right now for practical reasons) is in principle applicable, binding law.

So, no, the EU isn't going grant Snowden asylum. But it is certainly a major player in refugee law.