Brussels, 30/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - In the field of asylum and immigration, the JHA Council met on Monday under the presidency of the Portuguese Home Minister Fernando Gomes and Justice Minister Antonio Costa. It tackled the following issues:
- European Refugee Fund. The ministers and Commissioner Vitorino held discussions -described as "detailed" by Mr Gomes - on three politically sensitive matters, namely financial provisions, emergency measures and the breakdown of resources between Member States. Stating his hope that the decision would be taken "under French presidency" (during the second half of 2000), Mr Vitorino felt that the Fund would be the "beginning of a response" for the Union not to be disarmed "before the eventuality of further Kosovos". To the question of knowing whether EUR 10 million seemed sufficient for emergency measures, the Commissioner replied that the main thing was to find a legal base, other budgetary instruments being likely to be activated in case of need. The dossier - which is directly linked to that of temporary protection - is referred back to the Committee of Permanent Representatives which is invited to intensify its work with a view to an eventual decision before the end of the Portuguese Presidency.
- Re-entry agreements. The ministers have made headway in the finalisation of the mandate on the basis of which the Commission will be able to negotiate an agreement of this kind, Community competence having been recognised in this matter by the European Council of Tampere. The draft mandate concerns Morocco, but it will serve as a mould for identical agreements to be negotiated with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Russia. Coreper was invited to resolve continuing problems which concern the non-exclusive nature of these Community agreements (to put it clearly, bilateral agreements remain possible, which was challenged by Spain) and the obligations of reentry for contracting parties - namely the Member States charged with coming to an agreement with the third country concerned - concerning third country nationals and stateless persons. During the round the table discussion, Commissioner Vitorino clearly pointed out, in response to fears expressed by Germany and Austria, that, in the spirit of the Commission, it was in no way a question of paying third countries to accept repatriations. Cooperation programmes could, however, on the other hand, be used to offer technical assistance to local administrations and, from this, in time reduce the need to repatriate.
- Family reunification. The Presidency informed the Council of the state of progress of work on this draft Directive and the Council entrusted its bodies with stepping up effort to adopt it as soon as possible.
With the support of Austria, Germany pointed out that persons receiving temporary protection should not be eligible for family reunification, to which the Commission replied that thought would therefore have to be given to reducing the period of temporary protection so that the person concerned could be covered by the Geneva Convention on Refugees. Antonio Vitorino admitted that there were still a number of divergences on this vital "integration instrument", because the problem could not be addressed solely from the standpoint of repression.
- Temporary protection. The main elements of the proposal for a directive put forward by the Commission on 24 May were outlined succinctly by Mr Vitorino. The first ministerial debate focused on links to be established between temporary protection and the Geneva Convention. The Council's relevant bodies were instructed to pursue their work on this proposal without delay.
- Asylum and immigration. On the basis of the activity report of the high-level group set up at the initiative of the Netherlands, the Council took note of the fact that the General Affairs Council could adopt, at its June session, the action plan for Albania and its region. It also welcomed the progress achieved in implementation of the action plans for Afghanistan, Iraq, Morocco, Sri Lanka and Somalia, approved last October.
The Council also debated other issues; EUROPE will report further tomorrow.
