Brussels, 18/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - During its first plenary session in October, the European Parliament will discuss two reports on the problems of immigration and asylum. One is by Robert Evans, British Labour, on the Commission communication entitled "Towards a common asylum procedure and a uniform status throughout the Union for persons granted asylum", and the other is by Hubert Pirker (EPP-ED, Austria) concerning the Commission's communication on "Community policy on immigration". We recall that the Commission had adopted its two communications in November 2000 and launched a wide debate that should result, in December this year, in common European regimes for asylum and immigration (see EUROPE of 23 November, 2000, p.13). The Socialist Group of the EP, especially, had already requested during a seminar in April, the setting in place of a common asylum and immigration regime within the EU (see EUROPE of 3-4 April, p.15).
With the adoption of the Evans report on asylum, the European Parliament Committee on Freedoms and Rights of Citizens calls on: 1) the Commission and Council to ensure that a common asylum policy: - maintains the high standards of protection for refugees, fully supported by the 1951 Geneva Convention; - comprises a common definition of refugees from a global definition that takes into consideration persecution of a national and non-national nature and the fears of persecution experienced by the asylum seeker; -provides for recourse to the concept of "safe third country", "safe country of origin" and accelerated procedures to be limited to justified cases; - and comprises legally binding safeguards; 2) the Commission: a) more particularly regarding the concept of safe country to: - set in place a procedure allowing the establishment by common accord of a common list of safe countries that would take recent developments into account; - establish a system guaranteeing that individuals will be admitted by the third country and will have due access to asylum procedures; - control transfer towards safe countries and submit an annual report to the European Parliament; b) being a question of complementary measures to; - examine above all measures aimed at combating the fundamental causes of forced migration, and improve access to EU territory for those fleeing persecution; - examine a complementary procedure for asylum requests introduced outside the EU and outside the country of origin; 3) Member States to: - encourage and organise the voluntary return to the country of origin for asylum seekers whose dossiers have been rejected and to offer them material aid as well as other forms of support; and 4) the EU: - to give greater support to the work of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees concerning the hosting of refugees in conflict areas.
With the adoption of the Pirker report on immigration (29 votes for, 6 against and 2 abstentions), the Committee on Freedoms mainly calls on: 1. The Commission and Council to: a) establish European framework regulations concerning at least the conditions for the entry and stay of migrant workers, a coherent approach for visa issuance, a staggered system for granting entry permits for migrant workers; and ensuring the mobility of third country nationals who have a permit to stay in a Member State; b) take into account the possible effects of the next enlargement on the labour market of Member States and, in this context, to organise information campaigns in the countries of origin on the possibilities and real needs of EU member countries; 2) Member States to: a) provide for conditions of entry and stay on their territory depending on the needs of their labour market, taking into account the limits of their possibilities and the long term objective to integrate migrant workers; b) open up to migrant workers the possibility of family reunification.