Brussels, 29/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Justice and Home Affairs Council scheduled for 20 December will indeed be taking place as there is still much to be settled. As after the October Council, the Presidency and the Commission gave their assurance that agreement on difficult issues was close to hand, and that it would surely be endorsed during the next Council. Home Ministers achieved more concrete results this time, since they approved the plan for the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland (a plan that is being allocated EUR 17 million from the Community budget, and which will begin in April) and the action programme for a European returns/expulsion policy, which aims, among other things, at organising common charter flights for sending illegal immigrants home - a sensitive topic if ever there was one (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.6). "We have fulfilled the Seville commitments" on this point, Council President Bertel Haarder welcomed. Commissioner Antonio Vitorino stressed that the implementation of this programme would take considerable time (see EUROPE of 23 November, p.15; 22 November, p.9; 31 December, p.14). On the other subjects, however, ministers did not make any tangible progress. Mr Haarder also gave his assurance that there was agreement on the definition of "refugee" and alternative protection, with very few reserves, but that the reservation expressed by Germany is still on the table (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.6). The German minister trusts there will be an agreement for December, "but can promise nothing".
As far as the conditions for hosting asylum seekers are concerned (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.6), there was considerable discussion on Thursday between Member States regarding the interpretation of the agreement reached on access to employment. The text is ambiguous and could very well lead one to believe that access is no longer compulsory one year after the request for asylum is made if the Member State has not enacted on the request, while the Fifteen had reached an agreement on this point in April. The fourteen Member States and the Commission agreed to say that, under such circumstances, the right to work remained, but Germany said nothing, explains one diplomat. The German Länder did not agree that this issue should come within the scope of Community competence.