Brussels, 03/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 May, the European Commission will publish a report on immigration in which it will defend a European Community approach, as opposed to an intergovernmental system, to deal with would-be EU immigrants in the short and long-term.
In a draft version of the report, the Commission sets out a raft of ways of dealing with migratory pressure, exacerbated in recent month by the arrival of more than 25,000 Tunisians in Italy and several thousand refugees from Libya on the shores of Italy and Malta. Moving beyond the controversial question of how the Schengen Area operates and the question of whether internal border controls should be re-introduced in Schengen, the Commission discusses necessary strengthening of the European budget for the solidarity and immigrant management programme, boosting the Frontex agency, the fact that Libyan refugees need to be shared out among member states (more countries need to step forward), illegal immigration in the EU and possible activation, if necessary, of EU Directive 2001/55 on temporary protection if floods of immigrants arrive on the EU's doorstep.
The report begins by setting out short-term measures, listing recent humanitarian action in Libya and Tunisia and aid for Italy from Frontex' Hermes mission. The Commission says that it does not have enough money to meet all the requests for further action of this type and deal with current immigration crises and what funding it does have is difficult to access. The upcoming EU budget will therefore have to learn from the current crisis and provide greater funding. The Commission also calls for greater autonomy to enable it to raise funding to deal with sudden crises.
The Commission then examines the idea of boosting surveillance of the EU's external borders and raises a question that France and other countries are keen on, namely an EU border guard system. This idea will be examined and is described as the creation of a common EU culture by means of shared standards and resources rather than a giant EU civil service. The Commission also suggests strengthening the Frontex agency (the Council of Ministers and the EP are already examining a draft updating of the Frontex Regulation) to make it possible for Frontex to intervene faster and have its own resources The Commission therefore calls on the member states to reach agreement as quickly as possible on updating the Frontex Regulation. In the short-term, the Commission also talks about the controversial changes to how the Schengen area is governed. Some member states want to be allowed to reintroduce border controls. The Commission defends a very European system, pointing out that the Schengen area is one of the greatest success stories in Europe but admitting that changes will be required in order to preserve it. Explaining that a strengthening of external border controls is the main way to preserve Schengen, the Commission goes on to suggest, however, a European Community mechanism for re-introducing internal border controls in the event of one or more member states failing to properly monitor its external borders or in the event of sudden pressure on borders due to events in the outside world. The Commission is not, at this stage, considering internal border controls as a result of floods of immigrants. The way the Commission sees it, the European Community mechanism would be subject to decision-making at EU level to decide which member states would be allowed to reintroduce border controls and for how long. The mechanism would only be used as a last resort to give a breathing space to enable other emergency measures to be taken to resolve the situation. This “Europeanising” of the decision would prevent countries from doing what France is doing at the moment and unilaterally deciding to introduce border controls within the Schengen area. The Commission suggests that it should lead the process of redrafting the Schengen rules, along with experts from the member states and from Frontex, and says it is prepared to publish guidelines on how the Schengen rules are to be interpreted. Disagreements in this connection have caused severe tension between Italy and France in recent weeks. Few details of the new Schengen rules are forthcoming at the moment and the Commission says it needs to study the feasibility of the new European Community mechanism.
The Commission then discusses prevention of illegal immigrations and measures to penalise employers of illegal aliens, how to tackle human trafficking and the process of sending would-be immigrants back home. The Commission says that future readmission deals to be negotiated with North Africa and elsewhere should form part of more general agreements because negotiations on this subject are not easy as the countries in question have no desire to sign because they receive nothing in return. The Commission makes a suggestion that is likely to be popular with France and the Netherlands, namely a “safeguard clause” for countries that have benefited from relaxed visa requirements, like some of the Balkans states, from where a lot of illegal immigrants reach Europe. To prevent abuse of the system, the safeguard clause would enable visa requirements to be introduced for countries that had previously not required visas. It is reported that the Commission will introduce tangible proposals to this effect shortly. The Commission will, however, continue the tradition of being open to the world and will pursue policies already introduced like the single permit and allowing skilled workers to emigrate to the EU.
Asylum. A few months ago, the Commission unveiled updated suggestions about how to deal with asylum seekers that are likely to remove some of the disagreements at the EU Council of Ministers, but the Commission is not planning to change its suggested changes to Dublin II. Unlike most member states, the Commission wants to change the Dublin II system, explaining in a draft report its idea of a temporary suspension mechanism to allow the sending of asylum seekers from one country to another in the event of exceptional refugee numbers. The report will be discussed by the JHA Council on 12 May. (S.P./transl.fl)