Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-11-Speech-3-008"
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"en.20040211.1.3-008"2
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"Mr President, Mr President-in-Office, Commissioner, anyone who simply reads the progress report on the last year will be surprised by just how much progress we have made in the area of security, and you, Mr President-in-Office and Mr Vitorino, together with the European Parliament, can be proud of how much things have moved on as regards security. I would just like to highlight a few points that strike me as particularly important. For one thing, the Eurodac system became operational in January last year. That quite simply means that the Dublin Convention is now being effectively applied, that we can establish which country is actually responsible for dealing with an asylum application, and that we have an instrument available to us to successfully halt abuse of the asylum system.
In order to prevent flows of illegal migration, we have established partnerships with countries of origin and transit countries. We have created an overall package of measures for combating illegal immigration which provides in particular for preparation for a new integrated system for securing external borders, with very high standards, to apply at all existing and future external borders of the European Union. We have also made preparations for joint repatriation campaigns.
Something else I regard as being particularly successful is the political commitment to including biometric data in visas and residence permits, as in that way we will be able to ensure that we give people crossing borders documents that cannot be forged. Another significant development is the conclusion of the cooperation agreement between Europol and the new Member States or other States such as Romania or Russia, as a means of taking successful action on the ground against international crime and in particular against corruption.
Lastly, another outstanding success story is the agreement reached for the first time on a standard minimum sentence to combat illegal drug trafficking, and then there are the measures we have taken in the fight against synthetic drugs, or the progress made in civil and criminal law, which I shall not go into in greater detail. All in all, Parliament, the Council and the Commission have successfully implemented an excellent package of measures.
I would, however, also like to make some critical observations and to make certain requests. The first thing I would like to say is this: I think it is essential that the current presidency's ambition to implement the status and procedures directive in the first part of this year, that is by April, should be achieved in the interest of a common asylum policy. I fear that if we do not manage that we will have enormous problems in actually agreeing upon a common asylum policy, as we would then be without any emergency aid for refugees. We would accordingly be left without the instruments needed to move forward in combating abuse. You have our full support in this area as President-in-Office.
My second point is about combating corruption. In the interests of stability in the new Member States, it is vital for us to step up the fight against corruption in those states, and we must help them to reach the Schengen standard at the new external borders as quickly as possible. That is in the interests both of the new Member States and of the European Union as a whole. It will require investment. You have our support on this.
I would also like to say a word about agencies. I do not think we should start constantly inventing new agencies. No, we need to keep the many we already have capable of operating properly. We cannot countenance repeatedly extending the management boards – from 15 to 25 – by adding additional experts, and then, if that does not work, setting up an executive board. Then there is talk about setting up a coordinating board as well, to ensure that the other two boards operate properly. That cannot be the way to go.
One last point: I would like to see an overall improvement in procedures. Otherwise, there is a danger of squandering resources. We cannot have a situation in the future in which Commission documents come to this House, and then, while Parliament is doing its work, new documents, new agreements are developed, about which Parliament is not informed, so that we carry on working on the old basis and then have to start all over again. I call on you to improve coordination here in the overall interests of procedural efficiency.
This debate, which comes at the end of a successful year and of a successful parliamentary term, should provide a critical assessment, and should spur us on to build on that success in the interest of the security of the EU's citizens. Rest assured that we in the European Parliament will do our utmost to support you, even when it comes to the increase in the budget that will undoubtedly be needed if we are actually to achieve the successes that we wish to see in the interests of security."@en1
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