Brev fra Europa-Kommissionens formand, Romano Prodi vedr, illegal indvandring
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Til underretning for Folketingets Europaudvalg vedlægges i forbindelse med Det Europæiske Råd i Sevilla den 21.-22. juni 2002 brev fra Europa-Kommissionens formand, Romano Prodi til ministerpræsident, José Maria Aznar vedr. illegal indvandring, SN/2646/02.
I very much welcome your decision that in Seville we should address our citizens' understandable concerns about illegal immigration and human trafficking. Unless we are seen to be finding effective responses to these issues, it will be increasingly difficult to take forward the necessary debate on how to manage legal migration and the proper respect of our obligations under the Geneva Convention.
At Laeken we had to acknowledge that in this area there was an urgent need to rekindle the momentum of Tampere. There is no shortage of relevant material on the Council table which, with the right input from the European Council, can restore this momentum. I have in mind, in particular, the Action Plan against illegal immigration adopted recently by the Council.
I thought it would be useful to suggest some concrete points that I would like to see addressed in Seville and which I am convinced should enable us to send out the sort of positive signals that people are looking for:
* We should strengthen the control of the external borders by developing the concept of an integrated and comprehensive "border strategy" for the EU. The Commission and the Italian Government have both very recently come forward with ideas. We could start implementing first steps at once, for example by encouraging those responsible for border management in the EU to get together rapidly and begin assembling and prioritising the different pieces of the system. The Commission has suggeste d a phased approach which I hope will find favour.
It goes without saying that all the dimension, including burden sharing, will have to be addressed.
* We should bring to the issues of asylum and migration the same commitment which enabled us to respond so quickly to the events of 11 September. This means speeding up the adoption of certain legislative instruments and the implementation of a number of practical measures for which drafts are already on the table of the Council. The goal would be not only to tackle illegal immigration but also regulate access to our countries of needed immigrants, as well as addressing jointly the challe nges of their integration in our societies.
* We will also need to provide a strong signal that the EU remains committed to providing
protection for genuine refugees while discouraging all possible types of abuse and coming down heavily against trafficking in human beings. To achieve those goals decisions are urgently needed on the various elements of the asylum policy that we set out for ourselves in Tampere and renewed in Laeken.
* We should energetically pursue ideas developed at Tampere on how to integrate migration issues into our relations with source and transit countries and to monitor them regularly, bearing in mind that the EU's development co-operation policy and EU market access are effective ways of normalising migratory flows. The Commission will soon be coming forward with a communication on how to develop links between development and migratory flows. This is al ready an important strand in our assistance to third countries enabling us to ensure that they work with us to address the root causes of destabilising migratory flows which are the result of push factors (poverty, conflicts, bad governance) and pull factors (the dynamism of the European economy, the demand for workers of all skills). Ratification of the Cotonou Agreement should be a priority in this context, as it will enable us to place Readmission Agreements where they should be: as one dimension of cons tructive overall partnerships.
I suggest that we also make it clear that we will be looking for concrete progress before our meeting at the end of the year in Copenhagen.
I am copying this letter to our colleagues in the European Council.
His Excellency Señor Don José Maria Aznar