Strasbourg, 16/03/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has held a further debate on the creation of the Eurodac system for comparing fingerprints of asylum seekers, following the presentation of oral questions at the Council by Anna Terron I Cusi, for the Socialists, Ozan Ceyhun and Alima Boumediene-Thiéry, for the Greens, and Hubert Pirker, for the EPP.
We recall that the Parliament had requested, last November, a large number of amendments to the last Eurodac project founded on the Amsterdam Treaty, but that the Council had decided to oppose all the EP amendments.
This is a misunderstanding, explained Council President Mr Seixas da Costa: the Council never said it is opposed to all the Parliament's amendments. The Council has not yet come to consensus on Eurodac, but "I assure you that the regulation will fully respect the European Convention on Human rights and the UN Convention on Children's Rights", said the president. European Commissioner Mr Vitorino noted that this matter is one of the "few cases" in which the institutions do not take the same stance. He specified this by saying: a) Parliament's attitude: In its new proposal, the Commission accepts the proposal whereby the data on asylum seekers must be deleted from databanks as soon as the asylum seeker is granted refugee status, but it maintains the possibility of demanding fingerprints for young people of 14 years of age also (in my country, children of ten must provide their fingerprints in order to receive their first identity card, but it is not for this that Portugal "criminalises" children of ten years of age); b) Council: the Commission does not agree that the Council should not delegate powers of implementation to it. Do not call on Eurodac to do things it cannot do, Mr Vitorino told the MEPs, who, in his view, raise problems that must be settled in another framework, such as the temporary protection of asylum seekers (we shall make proposals on this subject in coming months, he recalled). From this week on, we shall have, moreover, a working paper on reevaluation of the Dublin Convention, in order not to waste time, Mr Vitorino pointed out.
Some MEPs insisted on the need for Eurodac to be rapidly set in place, while others mainly saw the dangers of the system. The former include the elected ÖVP member, Mr Pierker, who stressed that Eurodac should make it possible to avoid multiple asylum requests and allow the burden to be shared more fairly between Member States, and the German Christian Democrat Mr Nassauer, who mainly denounced the "abuse" of asylum requests. Ms Terron I Cusi, on the other hand, insisted on the need for "strong social consensus" on measures which concern the creation of the large European area of freedom, security and justice, and Mr Ceyhun said he was not pleased with the Council's attitude, mainly concerning the minimum age required for fingerprints. Ms Boumediene-Thiery expressed herself along the same lines, and Ms Frahm, Danish United Left member, said: "Let Eurodac die peacefully!".