Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-08-Speech-1-139"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040308.11.1-139"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Commissioner, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I should firstly like to confess that I am confused as to the relevance of this debate, at this late hour, when the Council is very close to reaching an agreement on the Commission’s proposal regarding the plan for a European agency to manage external borders, and when it provides for a series of amendments that are diametrically opposed to the position proposed by Parliament in Mr von Boetticher’s report.
I should also like to point out that these documents illustrate, once again, how difficult it is to establish genuine cooperation between Parliament and the Council, as is still all too often the case. The consultation procedure becomes a battleground, in which the two sides do not compete on an equal footing; two approaches finally square up in these documents, and the one in favour of citizens’ rights is doomed to defeat.
Parliament proposes, on the one hand, that this agency should be given a less intergovernmental structure, with the composition of these bodies, which would involve the Commission more in the aim of greater effectiveness. On the other hand, the Council is preparing to meet the wishes of the Member States that each should have a representative on the Administrative Board, which will naturally damage the effectiveness that we had wanted the agency to have. This is severely disappointing.
The Council’s intransigence is made all the more serious by the fact that it affects the protection of human rights. We believe that the new agency’s responsibilities must not include the expulsion of people from third countries living illegally in Member States. Unfortunately, the Council does not share this opinion, and it does not appear to have any intention of changing its position. What grounds does it have for putting such a measure in place? Can it really be said that the EU has a common policy on asylum and immigration that would justify this proposal? I feel that the answer to this question is clearly ‘no’ – this common policy does not exist, at least not yet.
To my mind, we will not take the EU forward by going down the road of a totally repressive policy aimed at speeding up cooperation between Member States in repatriating illegal immigrants. It strikes me that the Council would be better advised to put its mind to the complex, yet absolutely vital task of analysing the causes of migratory flows and the reasons why large numbers of people leave their countries of origin. Given that we have not approached this analysis collectively, I feel that the measures that we are going to take will partly be in vain."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples