Strasbourg, 25/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament rejected by a very narrow margin a report calling on Member States and the Commission not to over-use the security pretext for refusing requests for asylum. The report by British Labour member Robert Evans also supported the so-called open coordination method whereby Member States are invited to implement best practices taken from national practice for asylum and immigration policy pending the adoption of a common policy. The advisory report was on the Commission communication on implementation of the common asylum policy presented in November.
The report was rejected on Tuesday by 243 against, 232 in favour and 42 abstentions, but approved at the committee on freedoms early July by 27 to 17. It was rejected because the rapporteur called for an "unnatural alliance between the right, the extreme right and the extreme left" which gives a "very confusing message". It was known that the EPP-ED would vote against the text but the surprise came from the GUE/NGL, which had voted for the report in committee but abstained during the vote in plenary, except for 6 of its members who voted against the resolution. Those voting against included: the EDD Group except for its Dutch members who voted in favour, most of the non-attached except for those on the Bonino List, and the UEN except three of its members who abstained. Other abstentions were from: 2 ELDR, 2 PES and 2 non-attached. The text was supported by the PES, ELDR and the Greens.
The EPP-ED explained its opposition for two reasons. On one hand, the group does not agree with the point of view of the report whereby requests for asylum should be able to be rejected for security reasons only in very restrictive conditions. On the other hand, it is opposed to the idea of open coordination which, according to German national Eva Klamt, amounts to preventing the development of European policy. The EPP-ED was not happy, either, about the first paragraph of the text, which proposed denouncing the fact that requests for asylum often represent the only way to gain access to EU territory. The GUE/NGL explains that it abstained because it "totally disapproves of the fact that the question of asylum and immigration is linked to that of internal security". Furthermore, there is also criticism within the GUE against the "unacceptable" content of the Commission's communication on this issue. The GUE thus explains why it contributed, together with the EPP-ED albeit for totally different reasons, to making adoption of the report fail, a report that called for exclusion from asylum for security reasons to be done with far greater precaution. The GUE requests that there should be no connection between the two.
During the debate, the rapporteur had justified support of the coordination method proposed by the Commission, explaining that it was not a question of finding the smallest common denominator but of an interim measure pending the setting in place of a real European policy. Antonio Vitorino put the same arguments forward a few moments later. The rapporteur, like the Commissioner, argued that it was not necessary for asylum seekers to undergo security after-effects of the events on 11 September. Olle Schmidt, speaking for the ELDR Group, stressed that the EU needs immigration to support its economic growth, but Dutch national Hans Bokland (EDD) did not fully agree with this. Jean Lambert, for the Greens, placed emphasis on the fight against poverty in the world.
The Evans report urged MEPs to call on the Commission and on Member States to interpret exclusion clauses "restrictively and with caution" according to the interpretation described in the Geneva Convention to ensure that examination of exclusion clauses do not become the rule in processing requests for asylum and that, if they are examined, that this is not done in the context of accelerated procedure. The EPP-ED disagreed with this paragraph. The report also called for security measures to be refused if they, in principle, entailed the detention of asylum seekers and to reaffirm the EU's policy by opposing extradition towards countries where extradited persons could be faced with the death penalty. The Evans report finally called on the Commission to study as soon as possible the status of persons excluded from the protection regimes but who cannot be expelled, and to propose a common legislation.