Fighting traffickers of human beings and illegal immigration. It is now that the first plans for "enhanced cooperation" make their appearance. Tony Blair and Giuliano Amato suggest one to coordinate the fight against illegal immigration; the European Commissioners Michaele Schreyer and Margaret Wallström favour another in order to harmonise energy taxation. For the moment these are only suggestions, hypothesis, but it is significant that they are formulated while the Nice Treaty (which will facilitate enhanced cooperation between the Member States, which intends to progress in a field or others who do not want to take part) is not even signed.
The British-Italian merciless war plan against traffickers of human beings (see yesterday's bulletin p.12) is obviously the result of an in-depth preparatory work, as it constitutes a true plan with several points and with elements of a timetable. From the start Mr Blair and Mr Amato cut short the aims of those who would grab such an opportunity to relaunch the refrain of European protectionism. The action envisaged is not directed against asylum seekers nor against transported people, but against the smugglers, who are also involved in the smuggling of drugs, prostitution and child pornography, and who do not hesitate to throw women and children into the sea in order to avoid the police. The EU must "act decisively to ensure that the Western Balkans, for a long-time submerged in ethic conflicts, does not to fall, today, prisoner of criminal organisations." By detailing the actions envisaged, the two Prime Ministers invite all the Member States to join the United Kingdom and Italy, and at the same time indicate a few deadlines: before the end of this quarter the network of liaison officials should be operational, within four months the immigration experts with Europol will have to be in place. The intentions of the other Member States being unknown, Mr Blair and Mr Amato indicated that the programme under consideration could take the shape "if necessary, of a enhanced cooperation."
Energy taxation (if Spain maintains its veto). As for energy taxation, the suggestion by Mrs Schreyer (formulated in a speech made on 4 February in Berlin) is simple: if the European Commission proposal on this issue, presented four years ago, continues to remain blocked in the Council for lack of unanimity, this theme could be the object of an "enhanced cooperation". The same idea had been raised on 24 January by Mrs Wallström as a possibility, and by explicitly citing the Member State that is blocking the draft, that is to say Spain (see bulletin of 25 January, p.9), and reaffirmed with greater vigour than on 1 February in a speech made in Berlin, when she announced: "It is deplorable that the Ecofin Council has been unable for 4 years now to approve the Commission's proposal for a framework for energy taxation (…) I an therefore personally convinced that we must now seek to apply the provisions for enhanced cooperation which the EC Treaty foresees."
These suggestions are important as the first indications of the difficulties that could be overcome with enhanced cooperation, and guidelines from the Member States and Commission.