Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-07-02-Speech-2-064"
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"en.20020702.4.2-064"2
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"Mr President, the Spanish Presidency had the good sense to change its priorities during the mandate by placing the battle against illegal immigration at the top of the agenda of the Seville Council. It was right to do so. The Council, in turn, was right to leave aside the misguided, poorly assembled projects tabled by the Commission and instead take practical, operational decisions. We can only guess at the harm done to the concept of Europe in public opinion in recent years by the Commission’s integration projects, which prioritised uncontrolled freedom of movement within the Union and the most extensive reception of third-country nationals possible, even above protecting citizens’ safety and social cohesion in the Member States.
I sincerely hope that this period is over, although I have my doubts, since although the Council is more aware of the priorities required, the Commission, on the other hand, is like a liner whose course cannot easily be altered.
We can only encourage the Council in future to thoroughly revise the Commission’s pending projects on asylum, family reunification, long-term resident status and temporary protection, and even to jettison the idea of supranational border guards. Priority must be given to practical, effective projects that respect the territorial sovereignty of the Member States and which could, where necessary, be variable-geometry projects, for example, a joint visa file that would finally provide information on who has entered and left the Union.
Lastly, Mr President, I would point out that the Council statement on Ireland was only designed to soften up the Irish before their second referendum on Nice. It appears to accept a pick-and-mix European security and defence policy, but in fact this does not at all concern the underlying philosophy or the content of the Nice draft treaty."@en1
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