Laeken; 17/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - Like all previous European Summits, the European Council of Laeken on 14-15 December has set out a number of commitments in its conclusions, which Heads of State will take up for themselves and which will set the Council of Europe a series of tasks. On this occasion questions concerning enlargement (see above) will be tackled, as well as:
A Balance Sheet of the Tampere Action Plan. The Summit had to admit that the balance sheet was rather flimsy on immigration and asylum issues. Member States asked the Commission to revise its version on part of the proposals that have already been put on the table but which do not yet have a date for their adoption. This is contrary to what the Presidency would have wished (see EUROPE 15 December, page 5). Germany, in particular, insisted that the Summit ask the Commission to present its new proposals on procedures for asylum, which have already been outlined, as well as those on family regroupment and the Dublin II Regulation. At the time the last Draft Conclusions proposed revising the definition of what constituted a refugee and forms of subsidiary protection, the Council had only been asked to "speed up its work" on these issues. The Presidency tried up to the very last minute to include in its conclusions a declaration stating that unanimous demand constituted an obstacle, just as did reluctance to change national legislation in order to move asylum and immigration issues forward. The Presidency was ultimately unsuccessful in its getting countries that stalled on the issue to accept this reference in exchange for prolonging asylum and immigration deadlines.
Galileo. Despite pressure from the European Commission, the Summit did not make any commitment for making a quick decision on pursuing the "Involving Europe the New Generation of satellite Navigation Services-GALILEO" project. Although Member States referred to the subject on different occasions, they only managed to agree to March 2002 for reaching a decision on joint action. June 2002, at the latest, was agreed to for the regulation that would launch the follow-up to the project. All the same, Regulation conclusions do talk about finishing by June 2002 (see our special editorial on the Summit).
A conclusion demanding that measures to be taken within the international coalition against terrorism could only be taken with the prior approval of the international community and clearly referring to the possible geographical extension of military operation in Afghanistan (a clear allusion to US comments on Iraq), was taken out (a request principally sought by the United Kingdom).