Brussels, 07/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 6 September, in Paris, six European Union countries and Canada pledged to improve cooperation to combat unlawful immigration. Speaking after the meeting, Eric Besson, French Immigration Minister, underlined that there must be further cooperation if illegal immigration is to be contained. Ministers or their representatives have agreed to work on speeding up procedures for unjustified requests for asylum and immigration, he added. The seminar was above all aimed at preparing an EU meeting at ministerial level, scheduled for 13 and 14 September in Brussels. In addition to Eric Besson, participants at the meeting included Besson's Canadian counterpart, Jason Kenney, European Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, Italy's Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni, and the Greek, British, German and Belgian secretaries of state. In 2009, these seven countries received over 183,000 requests for asylum, i.e. about 50% of all requests worldwide. With a view to closer cooperation, Besson said he would write to ministers concerned so that they invite their police chiefs to a meeting in Paris at the end of October. This invitation will be extended to the ten main countries of destination for asylum seekers worldwide, in the idea of launching a “Euro-American taskforce”. The Italian minister specified that Italy was battling against illegal migration from North Africa and that it was seeking to restrict immigration via the southern countries of Europe and Turkey. “The next stage is now to create a unified European system from the legislative point of view, so that all countries have the same rules and the same standards, in order to better face up to this significant phenomenon”. The Greek secretary of state for the protection of citizens, Spyros Vougias, stressed that 82% of illegal immigrants arrive in Europe via Greece. They also asked for Europe to be “more insistent” with readmission countries, the countries of North Africa and also with Turkey so that they apply existing agreements, in order that greater Community solidarity can be ensured as well as a fairer distribution of the heavy burden that is currently being borne by Greece alone. Cecilia Malmström is expected, on 26 and 27 September in Athens, to discuss the national plan for managing migratory flows, Vougias said. As foreseen, the question of the Roma community was not tackled at the meeting. Eric Besson nonetheless reaffirmed that France, in his view, complied with the European 2004 directive on the free movement of Union citizens. Without questioning the usefulness of this directive, Maroni for his part considered there were not sufficient penalties in cases where limits were not respected. He said he wished to discuss the problem with the Commission in the near future. (B.C./transl.jl)
European Parliament plenary session