Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-15-Speech-4-086"
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"en.20010215.4.4-086"2
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". – (FR) The two French initiatives intended to better combat illegal immigration have, in the first instance, been changed beyond all recognition by the European Parliament amendments designed to limit their scope. Furthermore, in the second instance, they have been rejected by Parliament, thanks, in part, to my vote, and that of the MPF Members, against. Our vote against should be taken to mean, of course, that we reject the amendments, but we do actually endorse the original French initiative and would like to see it acted upon. The vote of the European Parliament on this matter was, in fact, merely consultative, pursuant to Article 67(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
I find the amendments initially adopted by the European Parliament particularly regrettable. A good number of them, as I explained in the course of last night’s debate, would have the effect of putting the definition of measures against illegal immigration off until the Greek Calends on the grounds that a whole host of other policies in all sorts of areas would have to be implemented first. This was a completely erroneous position, but I shall not harp on the subject.
There was a second category of amendments which tried to reduce the force of the text by exempting various categories of offender from punishment, for example, the illegal immigrants themselves or the persons assisting them on putatively humanitarian grounds. Such exceptions were completely inappropriate.
In particular, these “humanitarian” smugglers must not be exempted from prosecution. Firstly, because all the mafia groups smuggling people into countries illegally in return for payment would then claim humanitarian reasons. Secondly, because even the illegal immigrants that have been assisted by charitably minded people almost inevitably wind up in exploitative situations, as often as not, purely by dint of their illegal status. And finally because the possibly genuinely disinterested persons who assist illegal immigrants are probably doing the immigrants themselves no good but are certainly doing their fellow citizens no good by presenting them with a problem which will be practically impossible to resolve for generations to come."@en1
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"Berthu (NI ),"1
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