Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-06-17-Speech-2-016"
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"en.20080617.4.2-016"2
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"Mr President, today we are debating one aspect of the introduction of a European immigration policy and there is already one observation we wish to make: here we are, constructing a Europe closed in on itself, despite the fact that to try to combat illegal immigration we should be setting up tools that allow migrants to arrive legally.
My group does not accept the compromise that the Presidency and the rapporteur laboriously arrived at, not because we are opposed to a European return policy but because we feel that the result is very inadequate as regards protecting fundamental rights. In fact, we have always said we are in favour of a return directive because we have witnessed too many horrors on our visits to detention camps. However, we do not want a directive at any cost. I have heard it said that this directive would allow people to come out from underground. This is a serious misunderstanding since this directive merely lays down rules for organising returns and under no circumstances does it give the right to stay.
The rapporteur feels this compromise is balanced because it confers a number of rights. However, these rights conferred by the text, such as access to education for minors and access to legal aid, are not really mandatory.
Furthermore, the directive will not bring about improvements as regards detention in the European Union. For example, bringing the detention period to eighteen months appears to be an improvement in nine of the twenty-seven Member States. However, of these nine Member States, three will not be affected – the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark – because they are not participating in this directive. There will be few improvements in countries such as Malta, where the majority of those in detention are asylum seekers, who are not covered by the directive. Greece’s detainees are mainly people intercepted illegally crossing an external border. These people are also excluded from its scope.
That is why the Socialist Group in the European Parliament tabled a limited number of amendments aimed at establishing a human dimension to this text. This is the first codecision of the European Parliament on the fight against illegal immigration and that is why we have a duty, as MEPs, to champion clear legislation that is not subject to different interpretations by Member States or rulings by the Court of Justice. That is also why I am calling on the European Parliament to make use of every legislative power at its disposal to allow the adoption of legislation that will improve the lot of detainees. That is our duty as MEPs.
This will not excuse us from thinking about a wider, more philosophical question: does the Earth belong to all human beings? Should some of these people really be assigned to living in poverty? Do you not think that is the real issue?"@en1
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