Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-20-Speech-2-359"
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"en.20100420.13.2-359"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I, too, would like to start by congratulating both Mrs Lambert and Mr Moraes on their excellent work, which will allow us in the next few days – as soon as the airspace situation has returned to normal – to formally adopt the regulation on the creation of the European Asylum Support Office. I imagine, therefore, that we will all agree on one point: that we welcome the imminent creation of this Office.
We should emphasise the fact that, to date, it is more often than not third countries that are less well-off than us that have played their part in accommodating refugees. Let us hope, therefore, that this asylum package is as successful as the Office was, and that its success comes quickly, because there is an urgent need to act.
Resolutely aimed at practical cooperation, the Office will help reduce the significant gaps that still exist between the asylum practices of the various Member States, and this despite a first, so-called harmonisation phase that began at the Tampere European Council. This body will allow us to ensure the consistency that is lacking in current practice.
I also wish to stress the important role that civil society will play in this Office, through its participation in consultative forums. Civil society’s grassroots involvement will provide a clearer insight into the difficulties encountered by asylum seekers, and into the failures of the national systems.
However, we must recognise that this matter leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. For Parliament, it is regret at not being able to play a full role in the appointment of the Director of the Office, for example, and for the Office itself, it is the impossibility of contributing to the introduction of a system of compulsory solidarity between Member States to provide relief for the countries located at the gates of the European Union.
In practical terms, this voluntary solidarity is empty talk. The fact is, if we refuse to even mention a more binding system, how will we ever achieve it? This remains a topical issue in our debates and we will continue to remind our partners, the Council and the Commission, of it.
The creation of this Office perfectly illustrates the need to put in place a common European asylum system. All the Member States are very much in favour of this when it is a case of declarations such as the 2008 European Pact on Immigration and Asylum. Strangely, however, these same Member States seem to suffer memory lapses when it is case of shifting from words to actions and translating their commitments to common rules into texts.
It is, for example, most regrettable to see how willingly the Council adopts a whole series of measures to combat illegal immigration, as it did during the February Justice and Home Affairs Council. However, it proves more cautious during the negotiations on the asylum package, which has been at a standstill for several months now. Rather than putting on a purely and opportunely political display achieved through repressive measures, I call on the Member States to build a real Europe of solidarity.
On the one hand, we know that these repressive measures are a significant threat to the right of asylum in Europe for individuals who, because of the increase in screening and other barriers, are undertaking increasingly dangerous journeys. On the other hand, Europe could finally boast genuinely harmonised asylum procedures based on the granting of proper guarantees to asylum seekers.
We can see that the Member States are very resistant to the asylum package and that the tendency is towards keeping national practices. This resistance is echoed resoundingly in arguments over the budgetary costs of such a common policy, which would seem to be unsustainable in a crisis context. Nevertheless, Europe has a huge responsibility where asylum is concerned."@en1
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