Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-01-19-Speech-3-140"
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"en.20000119.6.3-140"2
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"Mr President, the Treaty of Amsterdam has set an important objective for the Union. This is a task which all MEPs, the Council and the Commission must take on during this legislature: the creation, as has been said already, of an area of freedom, security and justice.
The Tampere Council, the motor and architect of this objective, has proposed certain goals, but five years, the time scale laid down for the implementation of Chapter IV of the Treaty, is too long to wait for the urgent solution which some problems require.
My first point is that Parliament must not be excluded from the important decisions to be taken in this area and that its participation in the decision-making process must be guaranteed, especially with regard to this project which affects the citizens, as the Commissioner has explained very well.
My second point is that we must make rapid progress in the adoption of a common asylum system, adopting common procedural rules and, above all, putting an end to the current confusion between migration for political reasons and migration for economic reasons. The recent laws on aliens adopted in my country, Spain, and in Belgium, are a reminder that there is an urgent need for the communitisation of immigration policy.
My third and final point relates to the external activities of the Union in the field of immigration and asylum. We must not and cannot give the impression that the Union exclusively wishes to defend itself from an avalanche of refugees and economic migrants. We must opt for a policy of cooperating in the development of our neighbouring countries in the East and the Mediterranean area, but we must do so with rigour, with economic means and in close collaboration with public institutions, which must cooperate in the protection of those citizens whose most basic rights are violated or who wish to emigrate in order to meet their most essential needs.
Finally, in relation to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the citizens of Europe need to have a vision of citizenship. The Euro, employment, even security, are not enough. They need a ‘European soul’, as a distinguished Spanish professor once said."@en1
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