11/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - French and British Interior Ministers, Nicolas Sarkozy and David Blunkett, are to meet on Friday in Paris to seek to bring the Sangatte problem out of deadlock. The problem concerns refugees who seek to gain entry to Great Britain via the Channel Tunnel, thus blocking the rail traffic. France has undertaken to strengthen surveillance measures to ensure security in the tunnel and the resumption of normal rail traffic by November. During a hearing before the petitions committee this week at the European Parliament, Commissioner Frits Bolkestein pointed out that "if these additional measures proved insufficient to restore normal traffic conditions in the short term, the committee reserves itself the right to initiate proceedings in the near future". Help was requested from the petitions committee by the rail freight operators English Welsh and Scottish Railways (see EUROPE of 24 May, p.13).