Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-11-Speech-4-161"
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"en.20020411.8.4-161"2
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".
Mr President, the Commission is obviously aware that repeated incursions by illegal immigrants into the transport installations between Calais in France and the United Kingdom are creating problems for security, the proper functioning of the rail transport network and freight traffic. This phenomenon, and I think the various interventions illustrated this, is the result of a combination of fairly complex factors and, in my eyes at least, demonstrates yet again that the Union needs a common immigration and asylum policy now more than ever. I agree with Mrs Ludford and Mrs Roure here.
Finally, as regards the specific situation at the SNCF Fréthun terminal, we have made representations to the French authorities under Community legislation, asking them to take any measures needed to guarantee the free movement of rail freight. The French authorities have told us that work to secure the Fréthun site has almost been completed and that work to extend the enclosure, install video cameras and various other devices is being completed. They have promised to complete the programme of work in time for traffic to get back to normal, pre-October 2001 conditions by June 2002. We have also been assured that security staff numbers have been increased on the SNCF site.
At the Transport Council on 26 March, the Commission, basically following a number of parliamentary interventions, put this item on the Council’s agenda so that the two ministers in question could state their opinion, and that is a euphemism I do not use lightly. On this occasion, the two delegations, the French and the British, intimated that they had agreed on the measures to be taken to ensure that traffic returns to normal under normal safety conditions. Armed with this agreement, the Commission now considers that it is up to them, given that the Commission has performed its duty of vigilance, to take any measures needed to guarantee the free movement of goods. You will notice that I refrained from addressing this aspect of the question, important as it is, before I had addressed aspects of asylum and immigration policy, which are of course the core points here.
This being the case, the Commission has, for its part, already taken the relevant initiatives by submitting, to the Council and Parliament, all the proposals needed in order to ensure some sort of equal treatment between the Member States on what are obviously difficult issues.
As far as political asylum is concerned, the aim of the Commission proposals is to create a fair, efficient and fast European asylum system. We proposed a Council directive on asylum procedures in September 2000. As you know, several Member States are opposed to binding deadlines for completing procedures. So we shall be submitting a revised proposal within the next few weeks, as instructed by the Laeken European Council.
Parliament is due to vote within the next fortnight on a proposal for a directive submitted by the Commission a year ago in order to harmonise the conditions under which asylum seekers are kept. The Council may reach a political agreement on this Spanish Presidency priority within the next few weeks. Of course, it would also help if Parliament took a stand. Another proposal for a directive adopted last September is designed to harmonise the definition of refugees and people in need of international protection and should be negotiated between now and 2003. The main purpose of all these proposals is to reduce what we might call pressure differentials between the Member States which motivate what it the bureaucrats have been agreed to call secondary movements due to de facto and de jure differences in asylum law. These initiatives all aim to guarantee that everyone who needs it has access to protection – and that appears to apply to a great many people in this case – in accordance with all the terms of the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees.
Finally, the Commission has also proposed a regulation on responsibility for examining asylum applications which includes, as Mr Berthu has just reminded us, a clause stating that a Member State which has knowingly tolerated the unlawful presence on its territory of a third-country national for more than two months is responsible for examining their asylum application. Negotiations on this subject are still under way, even though Parliament has also worked on them, and should be concluded during the Danish Presidency. So we are still drafting this text, Mr Berthu.
The Commission subscribes fully to the objective of developing a global approach to the management of migratory phenomena, including their external dimension. This is one of the objectives of the common asylum and immigration policy laid down by the Tampere European Council. We shall be discussing the matter in general and the fight against illegal immigration in particular in Luxembourg next Monday and shall be launching an in-depth debate on the connection between development and immigration.
As far as the fight against illegal immigration is concerned, the Council adopted an action plan on 28 February, broadly based on our proposal and highlighting the importance of cooperation with countries of origin and transit. The fight against trafficking in human beings and illegal immigration gangs are obviously one priority and should be backed up by assistance for victims willing to help prosecute traffickers. And we intend to launch a very broad consultation procedure on this aspect of a global immigration policy very soon on the basis of the Green Paper on the policy to repatriate illegal residents which the Commission adopted yesterday.
Finally, and this testifies to the complexity of the matter, we are preparing a communication on guidelines on the integrated management of external borders.
As for the specific responsibility of hauliers, this is regulated by the Schengen Agreement and defined in a directive designed to harmonise the sanctions which apply here. Nonetheless, we are aware of the fact that there is more to the problem than that and we have taken various initiatives to sit down and discuss the matter with the industry, administrations and humanitarian organisations."@en1
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