Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-09-27-Speech-3-079"
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"en.20060927.3.3-079"2
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"Mr President, I wish to thank Parliament for an excellent debate. I regret, however, that there has been insufficient time. Unfortunately, I cannot take, say, two minutes to give a five-minute speech, although that would certainly be possible in the Finnish Parliament.
The Presidency is aware of the nature of the draft Framework Decision on the protection of personal data under the third pillar – I am now referring to Mrs Roure’s proposal – and of its importance for the citizens of Europe, and of the fact that the European Parliament has engaged with the proposals on the Framework Decision VIS and SIS II information systems. In this connection and on behalf of the Presidency, I would like to thank the European Parliament for the work it has done, and to say that we are doing all we can in order to reach an agreement on the draft Framework Decision by the end of our presidential term. Where possible, we will take the European Parliament’s opinion and views into consideration in future work within the context of the acts of the Treaty, so that we can use an acceptable legislative instrument to guarantee high levels of protection of personal data by establishing common rules for data protection under the third pillar.
The issues of immigration and migration call for more focused discussion, and I hope that we will have the opportunity to return to them once again. The situation in the Mediterranean was an issue I raised immediately at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers for Home Affairs. It has been on the agenda and has been discussed at every such meeting, and will be again.
It is essential that we should be able to have a greater influence on social and economic development and on general conditions in third countries from which migrants come. In general, we Ministers of the Interior prefer to deal with the purely human and negative impact; in other words, we put the plaster on the wound. As a result, it is very important to have better coordination of the EU’s external relations and internal affairs in cooperation with third countries and the Commission. This is also something that has been continually underlined in the work of the Council of Ministers.
It is also important that we give support to countries which bear a heavy burden when it comes to illegal immigration. The initiative regarding extended solidarity proposed at Tampere is an important one. It may help us to make progress, and not just by doling out money. As a counterweight to this burden, we need significant financial investment. In addition, we need guarantees of a procedure that will ensure that the Member States adhere to the jointly agreed rules and take responsibility for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers entering their territory – in other words, that they register them and give them a residence permit, or make arrangements for their repatriation. It will be very important to establish information systems for this, and to develop existing systems too.
Together with the Commission, the Council supports the available forms of assistance needed in coastal surveillance in the Mediterranean and other areas of cooperation, but I wish to point out that in the European Union, responsibility for operations such as these lies with the Member States, which must have adequate competence, planning skills and management abilities for a continuing operation, as well as for joint operations. The countries on Schengen’s external borders are also responsible for preventing illegal immigration into the Schengen area. We want to support that, as well as the work of the new European Agency for the Management of Operational Co-operation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex).
It is vitally important that, when we emphasise the importance of ensuring protection and implementing the Geneva Convention, we make a distinction between illegal and legal immigration. In this respect, it is very important that a proactive European immigration policy is developed and its quantitative and qualitative management established, while at the same time we bear in mind the question of stability in our job markets. A proactive European immigration policy is not, however, the same thing as illegal immigration under the control of organised crime. As Commissioner Frattini said, we must also take a serious view of the fact that the illegal job market and the grey economy are responsible for human and economic chaos. The various Member States of the European Union should now be able to discuss this fact frankly and openly. For this to happen, the authorities must be better able to recognise the phenomenon of the smuggling and trafficking of human beings and to step up their efforts to protect the victims of human trafficking. The most disgusting form of organised crime, human trafficking, is a European phenomenon, although we hardly talk about it. Finland wants to revitalise this debate both at home and in the European Union.
It is very important to monitor the way in which the enlarged European Union responds to the demands of our citizens and what they find acceptable, on the one hand, and the demands of internal security, on the other. In this connection, I consider it very important to improve the decision-making process. It is totally unacceptable that we should take more than a year to think about who to choose as Director of Europol. It is also unacceptable that, at the same time as we demand controls at external borders and a border strategy, we should be dwelling on the matter of which city the Border Security Agency should be located in. We must be able to implement a decision-making system that aims at better and more credible security.
Regarding the mountain bike that was called for in earlier speeches, I would like to say that Finland, like Germany and the other presidencies, as well as Commissioner Franco Frattini, would like to put this mountain bike into a higher gear, and that we aim to use it for the benefit of common security and a safer Europe."@en1
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