Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-14-Speech-3-282"
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"en.20040114.6.3-282"2
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"Mr President, in this communication, the Commission assesses the progress made in combating illegal immigration. The Commission explains what has happened to date and aims to set out guidelines for the future. In so doing, it focuses on a number of points that it considers essential in bringing about an effective policy. I should like to give a few examples of these.
The first is visa policy, where the Commission rightly advocates the prompt establishment of the Visa Information System (VIS). Making documents unforgeable is vitally important to a secure system, and, therefore, there is a need for a clear choice of one or more biometric identifiers that will be stored in the system.
Then there is external borders policy, within which the Commission proposes a European Corps of Border Guards under its own aegis. As far as we are concerned, that is going too far. I agree with Mr Sørensen in that regard. The protection of external borders remains, in principle, a national concern. Cooperation is necessary, but this cooperation can also take a less far-reaching form than the Commission is proposing. The Commission rightly emphasises the importance of a common return policy to the credibility of European immigration and asylum policy, but I cannot see the connection that seems to be made between permitting legal immigration on the one hand, and a direct decrease in asylum seekers and illegal immigration on the other. I wish to join the rapporteur, Mr Pirker, in emphasising that the Member States have an exclusive right to lay down provisions governing whether or not to permit legal immigration. I am not yet convinced by the Council’s proposal to agree legal immigration quotas, particularly if this is done in order to achieve a better outcome of negotiations on readmission agreements with third countries. Individual Member States must at all events retain the option of prohibiting all legal immigration.
Finally, I fully support the Commission’s wish that the budgetary dimension of the solidarity principle be recognised in the field of immigration and border controls, provided that this principle is also recognised in other fields, such as asylum policy and the reception of refugees."@en1
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