MEPs want Tampere II to focus on immigration and asylum

MEPs are calling on the Commission and the
Council to set up a coherent policy for legal
immigration. They want this to be a top priority for
‘Tampere II’ agenda, the new justice and home affairs agenda
for the years 2004-2009.

The development of what is come to be known as ‘an area
of freedom, security and justice’ has been going on for five years
ever since a summit in Tampere, Finland. The next five-year stage
is under discussion and due to be agreed at the EU summit on 5
November 2004. MEPs in the EP’s Civil Liberties Committee
approved a recommendation making specific requests on
what the programme should aim for in a number of policy
areas on 14 October 2004. They are calling for:

• more legal migration avenues and the adoption
  of common policies on combating illegal immigration,
  clandestine employment and trafficking in human beings;
• measures and funding for the social, cultural and
  political integration of migrants;
• common standards of protection for repatriated persons;
• a common asylum procedure;
• the encouragement of mutual recognition of judicial
  procedures;
• a public assessment of the implementation of the
  counter-terrorism action plan by the end of 2005;
• the setting up of an integrated border management system
  allowing for co-operation between the European Agency and the
  national bodies responsible for the control of individuals and
  goods. 

Jean-Louis Bourlanges (ALDE, France), Chairman of the Civil
Liberties Committee, expressed his frustration at the Council’s
failure to grant the Parliament real legislative power in the field
of justice and home affairs. The Nice Treaty had foreseen that,
from May 2004, the Parliament would have co-decision power on
immigration and asylum issues, instead of a simply consultative
role, provided the Council unanimously approved this change. The
Parliament is pressing the Council to proceed to a vote after
considerable delay.

The new multiannual programme will be discussed once more by the
EU’s 25 ministers of interior and justice  during their
Council meeting on 25-26 October. It remains to be seen how
far MEPs’ recommendations will be taken into account. The
UK parliament’s European scrutiny committee has already warned that
many of the priorities of the multiannual
programme  “relate to matters which are at the core of
national sovereignty and directly affect the lives of individual
citizens”.

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