Brussels, 15/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - Heads of State and Governments from the EU are expected to give the green light on Thursday to the creation of the European Agency for managing the borders of the European Union (see also p 5). This agreement is expected to be the main result of a discussion on immigration, borders and asylum, which will take up the essential part of the conclusions of the European Council of Thessaloniki in June, to underline the importance that the European Union gives to these issues. The European Council is expected to remain very cautious on the Italian proposal to create a European quota system for immigration and will just mention that the Commission is going to study the subject.
European Agency for border management: according to the annotated agenda, the European Council is expected to request that the Justice and Home Affairs Council "obtains a political agreement by the end of the year on the main elements" for a project for setting up an "agency for managing the borders" if the Commission presents is proposal in time. The European Commissioner for justice and home affairs, Antonio Vitorino has made a commitment that the Commission publish its proposal in the first week of November. During their most recent Councils, Ministers of the Interior supported this proposal, despite certain reservations from Sweden (EUROPE 3 October p 12 and 13 September p 8). This is certainly an advance compared to the European Council of Thessaloniki, which did not reach an agreement on the vague formulation for the examination "in real time" for setting up "new mechanisms".
Anxious to not worry Member States which are against the setting up of a European border policy, European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino insisted at the Council o 2 October that this agency "is not a European corps of border guards". The European Commission will propose that the agency is "an instrument" for "making cooperation more concrete and efficient". It is expected to co-ordinate emerging cooperation in the border protection centres. There is already a centre for land border in Germany. Setting up an air border centre in Italy and two centres for sea borders in Italy and Greece are stalling somewhat, underlined a European diplomat, who welcomed the possibility of the European Council stressing the importance of "concretising these projects".
In the field of combating illegal immigration, the European Council is also expected to actively involve the Commission regarding the details for the use of EUR 140 million that it hopes to allocate from 2004-2006 to the creation of a European visa base, VIS (EUR 35 million), border control projects (EUR 85 million) and a European returns programme (EUR 30 million). The Commission plans to propose key figures at the end of November or in December, as well as a programme for the return of illegal immigrants and, in October, to make a proposal for a legal base for the establishment of a VIS database. The European Council is expected to involve the JHA Council in taking a decision on the development of the VIS base by the end of the year. It should also invite it to reach a political agreement within the same time on Commission proposals for the introduction of biometric data in visas and residence permits of third country nationals (EUROPE of 25 September, p.8).
Quotas for legal immigration: The Italian Presidency will not obtain the support it had wanted for its proposal to establish a European quota system which would allow quotas fixed freely by each Member State to be added at European level, to then be used as an instrument for obtaining the cooperation of third countries against illegal immigration. According to most Member States, the European Council must remain very cautious on the issue and its conclusions should be restricted to recalling that the European Commission will be elaborating a study on the matter. Some even hope to avoid all reference to "European" quotas. Some countries, like Germany, want to be able to keep control of their national quota systems without constraints. Others, with Belgium and Finland to the fore, are opposed even to the principle of quotas. The informal Council in September had given its go-ahead to carrying out the study for next spring, but without taking position on the establishment of such a system (EUROPE of 13 September, p.7).
Asylum: The European Council is expected yet again to insist on adopting two directives relating to procedures for examining asylum requests (EUROPE of 3 October, p.11) and to the definition of refugee status. The adoption of the second directive, foreseen for June this year but postponed until the end of the year, is still blocked by Germany, which wants to have completed adoption of its national reform in this area first (EUROPE of 6 June, p.10).