The two day meeting began on 4 July in the spa town of Evian. Chairing the discussions is French minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who hopes to win support for his 2007 French Presidency campaign through a tough stance on immigration. He has put forward a proposal for stricter quotas for immigrants with fingerprinting of all visa applicants.
The fingerprinting scheme, already in place in France and the UK is thought to be backed by Italy in particular, which has recently seen hundreds landing on its southern shores. Italy's interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu also supports allowing higher quotas for those countries that co-operate in combatting illegal immigration. The UK’s home secretary Charles Clarke wants the five to club together to set up a special force of airport liaison officers to identify passengers travelling with illegal documents.
The G5 have been holding informal meetings since 2003. This is the eighth meeting. Although informal and non-binding, the discussions set the tone to be taken by Europe’s most influential powers in other international and European fora.
