Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-06-Speech-3-140"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I endorse what Mr Altmaier has said. Next week the Council of Ministers will certainly address this issue candidly in a truly political debate. I shall not, therefore, repeat the references to the many positive measures that have already been taken. All of you will remember that just two years ago there was not a single document on joint European action on immigration; today we are talking about how to apply the documents and principles that have emerged from a political consensus that used not to exist but now does. Steps forward have been made, but not everything has been done as quickly as it should have been.
As somebody mentioned, we have had a major increase in funding for Frontex: EUR 35 million for 2007. However, EUR 13 million of that has been withheld and therefore cannot be used, and the corresponding spending cannot be undertaken. I am grateful for what has been said about Parliament’s commitment to getting this sum released to Frontex straight away. The toolbox made available to Frontex has been sufficient. I said the same thing a few weeks ago, after reading the commitment statements by the Ministers for Internal Affairs of at least 19 European countries. What I said then, at the end of May, was that for this summer we have over 100 boats, over 100 patrol vessels, 25 helicopters and 20 aeroplanes. What I have said today, however, is also true: since the formal commitment was adopted until now, we have only received one tenth of the equipment promised.
I shall tell the Ministers and their colleagues in the Council quite amicably that what they committed themselves to providing needs to be made available straight away. Had we had not five but 50 patrol vessels, perhaps a vessel might have arrived sooner to save those people from drowning. An Italian vessel could have intervened, and then a French one to recover the bodies of the victims and take them to France. Perhaps if we had had a greater presence we could have dealt with it sooner. That, you have to admit, would be solidarity in practice.
We also have to remember that in the areas where Frontex has operated – I mean in the Canary Islands last year, for example – it has had a positive effect overall. I cannot forget that the Spanish Minister for Internal Affairs stated at the end of autumn last year that migration to the Canaries had fallen by about 30%, thanks to Frontex patrols in collaboration with a third country, in this case Senegal. When the operations work, the results are obvious.
As regards the central Mediterranean, Libya had a visit from us a few days ago. A Frontex mission went to Libya to explore the possibility of providing aid to Libya to control its southern desert border with Niger. We told Libya quite clearly that we expect it to carry out more controls and above all to observe its territorial search and rescue region on the high seas, which Libya is bound to observe, like any other country.
The mission will be called Nautilus II and will be sent to the central Mediterranean; it will depart as planned within a few days, and of course I hope as many Member States as possible will take part in it, not just the Mediterranean countries. The German Government has indicated that it will take part in the central Mediterranean mission, even though it is not a Mediterranean State, and then there will be some Mediterranean States too. I would like to see my country, Italy, take part for example, although so far it has not given any indication that it wants to take part in this mission, which is going to operate precisely in the area between Sicily, Malta and Libya. This is a concrete example of the appeal for solidarity that I shall, of course, make to the Ministers, but I am also appealing to you.
The final topic is the Dublin regulation, which was mentioned by Mrs Roure, among others. The report was published today and has been adopted by the Commission. It shows how well the Dublin regulation mechanism has worked. The regulation has worked properly, but the Commission suggests certain additions. It suggests considering whether the principle whereby only the country of initial destination is required to receive immigrants can be the only fair solution or whether a better way of sharing the burden could be incorporated. That is also the subject of a proposal adopted today by the Commission, a Green Paper on asylum policy from now to 2010, as this Parliament requested. The proposals are there, and I am still expecting a gesture of solidarity.
Clearly, if a large majority of the Member States says that the system is working well as it is, that means that the country of first destination will still have to bear the whole burden, and that is not solidarity. That is another example of how even the Dublin regulation needs to be interpreted correctly, not to point the finger at anyone, but to ensure that everyone works together."@en1
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