Brussels, 06/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The tour of the capitals, which will take the Spanish Prime Minister to Lisbon and then to Dublin, will mainly give José Maria Aznar a chance to discuss the dossier on Council reform with his counterparts before it is forwarded to the Seville Summit. As the Benelux memorandum handed to Mr Aznar on Tuesday shows (see EUROPE of 6 June, p.3), the subject continues to cause division, especially concerning the creation of two formations from the General Affairs Council. One would be entrusted with horizontal coordination and the other devoted exclusively to common foreign and security policy. The work on this dossier will become intensified over coming days in order to reduce the number of options that would appear in the initial paper prepared by Council Secretary General Javier Solana. The General Affairs Council will examine the dossier during its sitting on 17 and 18 June, devoted to the preparation of the European Council in Seville. It is expected to state its preference for some options, but the final choice will be made by the Heads of State and Government. The latter may also, over and beyond the limited decisions that could be taken in Seville on Council reform (transparency of its work, for example) give indications on pursuit of the reform (on the subject of the fear that the work of the summit might overlap with that of the Convention, see p.6 in particular).
In Rome, where he met Silvio Berlusconi, José Maria Aznar mainly spoke to the press about illegal immigration. He announced for Seville "an operational plan providing for precise deadlines". He added: "If the EU cooperates with third countries from which the immigrants come, it expects these countries to fulfil their obligations to prevent illegal immigration (…). If they fail to comply with these obligations, the EU may reserve itself the right to review its cooperation agreements".