Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-10-25-Speech-3-056"
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"en.20061025.4.3-056"2
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"Mr President, I am pleased that attention was paid in Lahti to the problem of immigration, but I regret that other issues were treated as more of a priority.
When the Finnish Presidency presented its programme in July, I called in this House for illegal immigration to be treated as a priority issue. There has been little cause for optimism since then. On the ground, what is taking place on the shores of the Canary Islands is very serious. The Frontex system and solidarity amongst European partners in general have not been up to the task, but perhaps unilateral regularisations did not create the best possible climate for persuading the partners to cooperate.
Illegal immigration is a problem for all of us in an area without internal borders, such as the Schengen area. At European level this area is essentially dealt with by means of taking decisions and implementing them. Ideas and plans have largely been established, for example in the conclusions of the European Councils of Seville, in 2002, and of Thessaloniki and of Brussels, in 2003.
Those conclusions enshrine the principle that immigration should be integrated into the European Union’s external action and that cooperation is needed with third countries in the field of illegal immigration. There is also a mechanism for assessing the degree of cooperation of third countries and furthermore the assessment criteria are included. I believe, however, that this mechanism has been used little and in a very bureaucratic way.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to point out that decisions on illegal immigration no longer require unanimity in the Council, but that, during 2004 and 2005, this problem was relegated until the assaults on the fences in Ceuta and Melilla. The Union must not act in a reactive manner, in response to events, and then forget those issues that were previously priorities. We have been negotiating a re-admission agreement with Morocco for five years.
Mr President, it is not acceptable that we should only take terrorism seriously following 11 September 2001, the energy crisis only following the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, and illegal immigration, only after the deaths at the fences of Ceuta and Melilla.
The European Union will be judged by its results. I hope that there will be results in the remaining months of the Finnish Presidency and also at the European Council in December, and naturally that the progress made at previous European Councils be taken into account."@en1
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