Brussels, 10/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - "We now have to talk about serious matters - decisions need to be taken," declared the Danish Minister on Immigration and Integration on Tuesday afternoon at the EP's Liberties Committee, where the Danish Presidency presented its home affairs programme. The implementation of the conclusions of Seville on the fight against illegal immigration and asylum seeking requests being centred within the EU were the chief subjects discussed by Bertel Haarder and MEPs. MEPs gave a warm welcome to their former colleague and member of this Parliamentary committee, some of them were a little afraid of too severe policies being adopted in several Member States, including Denmark. Other MEPs appreciated the "balanced approach" of Bertel Haarder, who also presented the work programme proposed by Denmark for ensuring the follow-up to Seville (see EUROPE 5 July p 6 and 23 June p 9).
The main Seville conclusion focused on by Denmark was the decision to include a clause on the readmission of illegal immigrants in all co-operation agreement with third countries but also the possibility of sanctions. Mr Haarder stressed to MEPs that the European Council, "said that the Council can decide by unanimity whether to take sanctions, there's nothing new about that, what's important is that if we co-operate with a third country we have to request the readmission principle". Denmark, however, is one of the countries that wanted a stronger affirmation on the threat of sanctions. Mr Haarder explained that readmission had to form part of the process and if this were the case, sanctions wouldn't be necessary. British Liberal, Sara Ludford congratulated him for his "balanced approach" but the Spanish Socialist, Anna Terron was worried by the Seville conclusions, which meant that the Member States were always revising their own policies in opposition to what had been decided at Tampere in European immigration and asylum policy. Francis Newton-Dunn (British Liberal) asked about the link he saw between the fight against poverty and immigration policy. The Danish Minister replied that, "in helping a country we do not necessarily reduce immigration flows, which are a kind of alarm going off". In the conclusion of Seville, the Union said that it was prepared to bring any technical and financial aid necessary for co-operation in border control and readmission. Anna Terron asked whether this point was still viable given the "low JHA budget…We don't speak about helping third countries control their borders - except in the particular case of candidate countries but this is part of the acquis", declared the Minister during a fringe meeting on Tuesday. "What we're talking about are trade and co-operation agreements but with conditions: not to be too corrupt, have a little democracy and take back their foreign nationals who are illegally in Europe", she added.
Denmark wants an agreement on the Dublin II agreement during its Presidency and is going to propose "very soon" a scheme for ensuring that it works, declared the Minister. This regulation proposed by the Commission a year ago aims to redefine what Member State is responsible for examining an asylum request. The country which has blatantly allowed an illegal immigrant to stay in its territory a certain time will be in charge of examining the asylum demand if it is presented in another country afterwards. Greece, Italy and France are the most wary countries about this. Visiting Greece on Monday, Bertel Haarder pointed out that Greece was the most worried about the issue. "These countries are afraid that all asylum seekers will be sent back to them with Dublin II in force combined with the Eurodac mechanism" on digital fingerprinting of asylum seekers", he stressed.
Integration of immigrants is a priority, declared Bertel Haarder at the beginning of his speech. "Integration poses a lot of problems, the degree to which the social fabric of the welfare state is such that integration on the labour market is difficult when someone doesn't speak the language or possess qualifications", he asserted. On Thursday and Friday Denmark organised a conference on integration into the labour market, for which the conclusions have not yet been drafted but which will be submitted to the informal JHA Council in Copenhagen on 13-14 September. "The objective of the conference was to establish a report on best practices and show that after Seville we are not just talking about keeping people out", explained the spokesperson for the Danish Ministry on immigration.
Asked about the Danish "opt-out" on certain points of European asylum policy, the Minister explained that reservations concerned Denmark as it couldn't vote and didn't affect other Member States. A referendum voted no on the issue last year, so they would have to wait, the Minister explained. He stated that where there were certain reservations, they would study the possibility of adapting Danish regulation on the basis of European regulation.