Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-25-Speech-4-034"
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"en.20020425.2.4-034"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, let me start by thanking Mr Hernández Mollar for his efforts towards reaching agreement on his report and the further amendments to the proposed directive that is under discussion today. In Luxembourg today, the Council has been able to conclude an understanding by taking into account the amendments approved by Parliament. The result in Council will, though, remain in some ways unsatisfactory from the Commission's point of view. The text before the Council contains provisions that have watered down some areas of the regulation we were working towards. I must say, despite this adverse comment, that we still see the adoption of this proposal as a milestone on the road that leads to a common European immigration policy.
The sole directive covering this area affords only temporary protection. It is applicable only in exceptional cases involving a mass influx of expelled persons into the territory of the European Union. The directive on the reception of applicants for asylum will be the first binding regulation governing the uniform handling of influxes of asylum-seekers in the EU.
I would now like to make some comments on the report and on the amendments to the proposed directive that are under discussion today. The amendments may be divided up into three principal categories. Firstly, there are technical amendments which improve the text and which the Commission can therefore accept as a matter of course.
There are, secondly, substantive amendments that make perfect sense and will form part of the final version of the directive that will be adopted. These are amendments deleting every reference to asylum procedures, and also amendments aimed against reception conditions that differentiate in accordance with the asylum procedures applicable in each case.
Thirdly, there are substantive amendments that present the Commission with no difficulties but will not get past the Council because they go against the fundamental interests of one or more Member States. Examples of these are amendments deleting every reference to the possibility of Member States making use of a system of vouchers, and, only partially in this category, amendments extending the scope of the directive to other forms of protection not founded on the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
The Commission has constantly advocated a solution such as that put forward in these amendments, at least as a target for the second stage of the common European asylum system, but, with reference to this proposal, it had expressed itself in favour of leaving it, at least for the present, to the Member States to decide on the extension of the directive's scope. The Council still has an open mind on how to ensure that the relevant provisions of this directive are adapted following the enactment of the directives on subsidiary forms of protection and asylum procedures.
I said at the outset that the Commission regards the adoption of the proposal as a milestone on the road that leads to a common European asylum system. Quite apart from that, though, it is of extreme importance that the other three cornerstones of the common asylum system be added without delay, these being the directive on the recognition of refugee status and on subsidiary forms of protection, the Regulation on the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application and the amended version of the directive on asylum procedures. These three will shortly be resubmitted by the Commission and are intended – as the Tampere conclusions envisaged – to complete the first stage in the development of the common European asylum system.
In several Member States the prospect of immigrants and asylum-seekers flooding in is already giving rise to public expressions of fear. Extremist political movements find a ready audience for their calls for these people to be turned away without further ado, and this makes it high time that we agree on a unitary European regulation to properly manage the flow of immigrants and asylum-seekers. This is, in my opinion, the best way of overcoming these fears and at the same time fully discharging our international obligations in respect of human rights and doing justice to the humanitarian tradition of our Member States.
Let me, in conclusion, also express on behalf of the Commission, our great sadness at the accident that was reported earlier."@en1
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