Brussels, 16/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the S&D group at the European Parliament expressed concern about the project put forward by several member states to speed up implementation of the safeguard clause for the visa waiver regime in Western Balkan countries. The leader of the group, Hannes Swoboda, from Austria, was keen to point out in a press release that these systems granted in 2009 and 2010 to Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) constituted a, “a fundamental acquis for European integration”, which should not be undone. Swoboda pointed out that suspending these regimes would be a real step backwards in terms of integration and rather than suspending these visa waiver regimes, it would be better to step up discussions with the authorities of the countries concerned.
On Monday 15 October, the Commission indicated that it had received a letter from six home secretaries requesting that their next meeting in Luxembourg should focus on this safeguard clause. Germany, France, Luxembourg, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands are seeking to suspend this visa waiver regime in an effort to respond to the sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers from western Balkan countries who have arrived in the EU under the guise of this regime and who abuse it by subsequently submitting demands for international protection, which in the majority of cases are proved bogus. The rapporteur responsible for this issue at the Parliament, Tanja Fajon (S&D, Slovenia) said that she was also concerned by this approach by ministers and was concerned about this constituting a real step backwards in the area of integration. The MEP admitted in a press release that although the number of asylum seekers was significant, the situation was neither as serious nor as uncontrollable as some people are claiming. According to the figures provided on Monday by the spokesperson for Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, Germany and Sweden received 4,835 and 4,200 demands for asylum respectively over the first eight months of 2012, of which a significant part came from nationals from western Balkan countries. (SP/trans/fl)