Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-27-Speech-2-014"
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"en.20050927.4.2-014"2
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".
Mr President, first of all, I should like to thank the rapporteur, who has done an excellent job. For once, I am in total agreement with him: fear is a bad adviser.
Our guiding principle must be that the European Union, as an area without internal borders, must find a common and effective way of managing its external borders. The development of a common asylum and immigration policy forms an integral part of this. Despite the fact, though, that Member States have expressed this ambition themselves, it is with only the greatest of difficulty that this policy is getting off the ground.
Under pressure from public opinion, for which, in fact, national governments and parliaments are often to blame themselves, most Member States are currently adopting their own asylum and migration policy that is as closed off as possible, even though a change to the asylum and migration policy in one Member State has a direct impact on the migration waves and policy developments in the others. As the also rapporteur indicated, the drawback of a working method such as this is that the political refugee entitled to asylum appears to be at risk of being pushed aside.
In the public debate, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are increasingly lumped together, and, if we are not careful, the terrorists against whom we must fight will be joining them there in the foreseeable future. This trend has to be broken as quickly as possible, and that is why a European approach is necessary.
This afternoon, this House will be voting on the proposal for a directive concerning minimum standards in the Member States for granting or withdrawing refugee status. The proposal
is of little interest; it is in fact no more than a collection of policies that apply in the 25 Member States. It is disappointing that there is hardly any sign of harmonisation.
It has already been noted that the European Parliament has only advisory powers with regard to the proposal. Advice may be very useful, but it can, above all, also be ignored, and that is exactly what the Council will do. However, as soon as the final vote has been taken on this report and the directive thereby enters into effect, the European Parliament will acquire codecision in the areas of asylum and immigration, which means that the Council will no longer take decisions by unanimous, but by majority, vote. This amendment to the decision-making procedure is vital, as is the need to adopt common asylum and immigration policy in the short term.
In order that we may send out a powerful political message to the Council, I would urge the Members belonging to the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), particularly Mr Coelho, but also those of the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, to opt for the most viable compromise and thus refrain from voting against this report. My group has demonstrated its willingness to do this. There is one area that remains difficult for us, namely the concept of the supersafe countries, but I would be very surprised if a majority were to be found for that this afternoon.
A powerful political signal from this House is what is needed to demonstrate that we, across the political divide, dare fight for a speedy, balanced European approach to the asylum and immigration issue. Our visit to Lampedusa last week confirmed for me the need to do this. The directive is merely a first step, displaying little ambition so far, but a first step all the same, the importance of which we should not underestimate.
I should like to finish off by saying that, quite honestly, the fact that the Council is not represented here at the moment, cannot, in my view, be reconciled with the priorities that it set forth before, which is something that I deeply regret."@en1
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