Brussels, 04/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a letter addressed to the President of the European Council, José Maria Aznar, Commission President Romano Prodi welcomes the fact that the Seville Summit will be addressing "our citizens' understandable concerns about illegal immigration and human trafficking". He recognised how difficult it is to "manage legal immigration and the proper respect of our obligations under the Geneva Convention".
In his letter, President Prodi mainly insists on the following points which, in his view, should be tackled in Seville: 1) strengthened control of the external borders of the EU by developing an "integrated and comprehensive border strategy", mainly by encouraging those responsible for the management of EU borders to meet as soon as possible and to begin assembling and prioritising the different pieces of the system.; 2) speedy adoption of certain legislative instruments and the implementation of a certain number of practical measures that are on the Council table regarding asylum and immigration, the aim being not only to eradicate illegal immigration but also to regularise access to those immigrants that the EU needs while ensuring their integration in European society; 3) a strong signal so that the EU Member States undertake to ensure protection to "real refugees" while discouraging any form of abuse and hitting those responsible for human trafficking as hard as possible. Mr Prodi also announces that the Commission will soon present a communication on the links to be established between development and migratory flows, in order to tackle the causes of migratory movements (poverty, conflicts, etc.). In this context, priority should be given to ratification of the Cotonou Agreement (with the ACP States), as "it will enable us to place Readmission Agreements where they should be: as one dimension of constructive overall partnerships", writes Mr Prodi. He goes on to state that "we also make it clear that we will be looking for concrete progress before our meeting at the end of the year in Copenhagen".