Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-05-Speech-3-315"
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"en.20060705.20.3-315"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that the opinions of the Members of this Parliament all point in the right direction, which is the same one that the European Commission intends to take, and I find the words of the President-in-Office of the Council very reassuring.
This will have two immediate results, the first being that we will be able to implement the visa facilitation agreements and, simultaneously, the readmission agreements, by 2007, therefore over a very short period of time. I hope that the negotiations will be over quickly if, as I believe, the political will exists. This will mean not only that, as from 2007, the countries of the Western Balkans will benefit from a facilitated visa regime, but also that these countries will not have to bear the increased cost of a visa, which is rising to EUR 60, which has already been decided by the Council.
I am sure that all the countries of the Western Balkans will fall into this category and will thus be equipped with an administrative and bureaucratic, even preferential, visa regime and will not have to bear the increase in cost.
This is the precise agenda that I propose to follow; there is an understanding within the European Commission with Commissioner Olli Rehn, who is responsible for enlargement, and therefore the negotiating proposal will be on the Council table within a few days.
The Commission endorses the European vocation of the countries of the Western Balkans, because it considers the region to be strategic for Europe. We have worked intensively over the past six months with the Austrian Presidency and we hope that some emergency measures can be implemented. These emergency measures will be part of an overall package that will be the subject of a political agreement with all the countries of the Western Balkans concerned.
In the first place, these measures are intended to facilitate the visa regime, and I refer to certain categories, above all students, researchers and the business community, whom we hope to encourage to move around more freely in order to attract investment and to invest. It will be a simplified regime as regards procedure and also as regards the availability of visas, which – and here I agree with the speakers – is currently too restrictive.
Within the same political agreement package, we are planning agreements for the readmission of illegal immigrants. We have already done so in a few cases; for example the agreement with Albania has been signed and is already in force. This is a Europe-Albania agreement for the repatriation of illegal immigrants who come from Albania. As the President—in-Office of the Council has just mentioned, we intend to sign the same type of agreement with the other States as rapidly as possible.
It is also obvious that the concerns of the Member States will have to be taken into consideration. They are especially concerned about the level of security in terms of preventing corruption, preventing and combating organised crime, and the different types of trafficking, including, unfortunately, the trafficking of human beings in the region. We will ask these countries to collaborate more closely with Europe in order to improve the conditions for combating organised crime and corruption.
In this context, one measure that we feel is useful for exerting pressure on some Member States, which have raised objections over the past months, is the request that these countries equip themselves as quickly as possible with passports that conform to European standards, that is which comply with the rules of security as regards combating the falsification of passports and identity documents. This will help to prevent people travelling under false identities.
I think that countries in this region have the political will to do this. I have personally met all the Ministers of Home Affairs and the Prime Ministers of the countries in this region and I can tell you now that, before 15 July, I will apply to the Commission for mandates to negotiate visa facilitation agreements for all the countries of the Western Balkans. I will do so for Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro; it has already been done in the case of Macedonia because the Commission approved my proposal a few weeks ago. By 15 July, all the countries in the Western Balkans will have seen our formal proposal to the Council. I have reason to believe that the proposal will be announced on 15 July to the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers, the first Council under the Finnish Presidency.
I intend to provide initial information on the details of the proposals, if the Presidency, as I hope, accepts them, on 24 July to the Council of Ministers of Home Affairs, whom I will of course provide with a copy of the documents that the Commission has approved.
I strongly hope, or rather, after talking with the Ministers representing the Presidency, I am quite sure that, by the end of this year, there will be a concrete possibility of the largest possible number of mandates to negotiate visa facilitation agreements being approved."@en1
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