Brussels, 10/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU Internal Affairs Council of 7 December gave its approval of the general architecture for the directive on granting and withdrawal of refugee status, moved forward on the question of border controls, and confirmed the lifting of the visa obligation for Romanian citizens (see EUROPE of 8 December, p.9). The latest results were:
1. Asylum: The Council agreed that the future directive should define the minimum norms for a review procedure concerning requests for asylum and allow the adoption or maintenance of accelerated procedure for processing requests for asylum that are inadmissible and/or obviously without justification, and on the principle that the asylum seekers must benefit from major guarantees concerning the decision-making process, said Council President Antoine Duquesne.
2. European management border control concept: The Council held a policy debate and supported the approach made by the Presidency in its report on the need to: 1) strengthen and harmonise border controls at European level; 2) help candidate countries to organise controls at the future EU external borders through operational cooperation; 3) facilitate the border control crisis management; and 4) prevent illegal immigration and other forms of cross border crime. Mr Duquesne pointed out that the ministers had above all discussed uniform training for all services entrusted with the task of border control, the exchange of good practices, the regular organisation of common exercises (of the High Impact exercise kind last October), and the development of an early warning system. The president added that the Council had shown great interest in a study by Italy on the feasibility of joint border control teams.
3. Eurodac: The Council noted information provided by France on technical visits under way in the other Member States in order to allow it to carry out the transmission of "rolled" fingerprints of asylum seekers at the Eurodac central unit. France will announce the results of these visits in coming weeks with a view to rapid adoption of the regulation on Eurodac application arrangements (the regulation of 11/12/00 provides for the Council to adopt implementation arrangements by unanimity).
4. Follow-up of the Sarajevo declaration: The Council noted a Presidency report on the meeting of senior officials on 30 November in Belgrade with a view to implementing the declaration concerning, among other things, the consolidation of regional cooperation on asylum and immigration.
The joint Committee with Iceland and Norway, which then met: 1) discussed the Schengen Information System (SIS II): access to the system, new categories of data and/or new functionality with a view to integrating candidate countries, the technical updating of SIS and its functional improvement. Mr Duquesne added that the Council decided "legislative acts should be fine-tuned to allow access to SIS by authorities entrusted with vehicle registration, asylum issues and those that issue permits to stay, and in order to make the introduction of new categories possible". Furthermore, the Council will study the possibility of access by Europol, Eurojust and judiciary authorities, and the feasibility and timeliness of using SIS as an information exchange instrument concerning worrying situations (people that are banned from leaving the Schengen Area or who are likely to cause trouble during at certain events, and questions concerning visas); 2 noted: - a Presidency report on consular cooperation; - broad consensus on a regulation on a standard visa format; 3) gave its agreement on a decision on the administrative costs of visa requests, which should soon be submitted to the Council for adoption.