Brussels, 25/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Home Affairs Ministers of the Fifteen reached a political agreement on Thursday on the Council's draft directive for receiving asylum-seekers in Member States. Great scepticism surrounds the adoption of this text the goal of which is to establish "minimum standards for receiving asylum-seekers in Member states", but that remains extremely general and full of possibilities for exceptions and adaptations (see yesterday's EUROPE p.15). The European Parliament having issued its opinion the same day (see below), the directive could be definitively adopted once the Danish and Dutch parliaments have examined the text. Member states will then have two years in which to implement it. This proposal is part of an asylum and immigration package under still very difficult discussions within the Council, and the European Council of Laeken had wanted the deadlock to be broken rapidly.
The directive will concern all third country nationals and stateless persons lodging a request for asylum in one of the Member states. According to the text approved on Thursday, all asylum-seekers will have to be informed "within reasonable time not exceeding two weeks after their having lodged their request of the advantages they may benefit from and obligations they must respect regarding the conditions of reception". This information will have to be provided in a language of which they have "sufficient knowledge". Asylum-seekers will have to be informed of the associations they may turn to for help and on medical care they may be entitled to. They will receive a certificate within three days attesting to their status of asylum-seekers or attesting that their files are being examined, stipulating whether or not they may move around the territory. Member States may, if need be, decide on the place of residence of the asylum-seekers. They will have to preserve "as far as possible" the unity of the family residing on their territory, when they provide housing to an asylum-seeker. The State may provide for the asylum-seekers being subjected to a medical examination "for reasons of public health". Each State will have to grant underage children of asylum-seekers "access to the education system under conditions similar to those that prevail for the nationals of the host Member State as long as a removal measure has not been executed against them or their parents". For employment, each Member State will be free to set waiting periods in which the asylum-seekers will not be able to work. The directive will only demand that asylum-seekers will have to have the right to work at latest one year after they have presented their request for asylum, under certain conditions, that are not all that clear. The Commission had proposed that the deadline be six months. Member States will also have to "guarantee an adequate living standard for health and assure the seeker's subsistence". Member States may ask the asylum-seekers to pay their expenses, notably for health, if they have sufficient resources, and even ask them to pay back the costs assured by the State if it transpires that they had sufficient resources but had hidden them. Member States are urged to take account of vulnerable people, the disabled, minors, victims of abuse…Talks in Council were long, partly because they ran up against a declaration that Austria was calling for on candidate countries. Finally, the Council adopted a declaration in which it takes note of the fact that Austria intends considering nationals of candidate countries the same title as those of the EU, which, in other words, means that Austria announces a priori that it will not grant asylum to nationals of candidate countries. Member States may maintain more favourable provisions "to the extent that they are compatible with the directive".
"This is a first step in the right direction", noted a British diplomat, whereas, among French and Belgian sources they noted that the text would not alter much, limited as it is to the strict minimum. Between those countries that want no alignment out of principle, those that want to do nothing because they are in an electoral period, and those that want to change nothing not to appear attractive to asylum-seekers, there has been no movement, a diplomat complain ed. Spanish Home Affairs Minister Mariano Rajoy stressed once more before the only Spanish journalists, that the EU was seeking a balance between "a resolute fight against illegal immigration and the support for legal and lawful immigration, which contributes to the economic development of our countries". Antonio Vitorino announced a communication for 7 May on the future external borders of the EU, proposing an integrated management.