Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-10-02-Speech-2-039"
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"en.20011002.3.2-039"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure and a great honour for me, in my capacity as chairman of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, to report to you on the work which we are doing on asylum and immigration, but also to inform you of the initiatives planned by the presidency for the coming weeks. The fact that I have been given the opportunity to speak on this particular day is all the more appropriate given that your Parliament is being called to vote on two reports, which are of a very high quality and which are particularly important for our future work in the Justice and Home Affairs Council: Mr Pirker's report on the Commission communication on a Community immigration policy and Mr Evans's report on the Commission communication on a common asylum procedure and a uniform status, valid throughout the Union, for persons granted asylum.
When I introduced the presidency’s programme to the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, I mentioned the fact that our presidency had made these two areas – asylum on the one hand and immigration on the other – a priority, and said that there were several reasons for our doing so.
First of all, I note, echoing my European colleagues, that the public have a genuine expectation here, a legitimate expectation, and it is our duty as politicians to respond to this urgently, of course, but also, I believe, to provide some reassurance. This implies managing migratory flows effectively and it also means that we need to take measures to prevent the asylum procedure from being abused. We have to recognise that there is widespread concern about the upward trend in the figures which we are seeing more or less everywhere in Europe. Secondly, the evaluation of Tampere, which will be carried out at the end of our presidency, should allow us to identify the areas in which progress has been made in the field of justice and home affairs, but also to propose measures with a view to remedying any shortcomings revealed as soon as possible, and we have to admit that there are some. To avoid the regrettable consequences of these shortcomings, we think that it is necessary to relaunch the political process at the Laeken Summit. To do this we will need to resolve several issues which, though in the guise of technical difficulties, are in fact the subject of political dispute. I must in addition thank Commissioner Vitorino who always puts forward very sensible proposals, but has also proven to be very open-minded in his concern to make progress and who is willing for his proposals to be challenged if this moves the issue forward at European level.
With these two points in mind, the Belgian Presidency wanted even now to create the necessary political impetus to provoke a substantial debate on issues such as establishing a common and balanced immigration policy and setting up a European asylum system. In other words, we are working with our colleagues in this presidency to ensure that the Council of Ministers is once again able to play its role as architect of the European edifice and thus focus on settling a number of political disputes. Its legislative work should lead to visible operational activity and cooperation on practical matters between the law enforcement agencies and the immigration authorities. I have to tell you that for my part I am convinced that a common European approach, based on solidarity, is the only viable approach to these matters. We should remember that for a long time many Member States believed that they could tackle this problem on their own. They have to admit, however, that the results have not come up to expectations.
Let me take asylum first of all. The right to asylum is, of course, a priority for all of our countries. Europe’s dignity would not, I believe, allow otherwise. We still wish to see the Geneva Convention applied in full and compliance with it reaffirmed. It seems to me that in this respect our countries have nothing to be ashamed of. The efforts which we are making to meet our international commitments cannot be challenged or called into question. However, it is also apparent to all of us that large numbers of people are using this procedure as a way of entering the territory of our Member States for reasons other than those laid down in the Geneva Convention. I therefore think that we ought to consider what action we might take in the light of these two observations."@en1
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