Brussels, 17/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European People's Party, led by Wilfried Martens, will be holding its traditional pre-European Council meeting in Madrid on 20 June. Martens said that the agenda was overflowing with big issues that the EU would be addressing in Seville and the EPP couldn't put off its discussions. He added that it was not a bad thing for the Seville European Council to focus on immigration but a sense of proportion had to be kept since immigration figures tend to be much lower than in the 1990s. The former Belgian prime minister strongly supported President Prodi's remarks that a European immigration policy was more than just fighting illegal immigration. Martens said that an appropriate framework also had to be crested for fully integrating legal immigrants and the EU needed a great number of immigrants.
After Wilfried Martens presents a report in Madrid, the leaders of the EPP's parties and governments will discuss the European Convention with Commissioners Michel Barnier and Loyola de Palacio and with Elmar Brok, chair of the EPP group on the Convention. They will then be addressed by Jose Maria Aznar, after which they will discuss the document on a Constitution for a strong Europe that the EPP will be endorsing at its Congress in Estoril on 17-19 October.