Brussels, 31/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The next Justice and Home Affairs Council, to be held on 29/30 April, will be the last Council before the deadline set five years ago in the Amsterdam Treaty for the adoption of legal bases for a European asylum policy. On Tuesday, after the Justice and Home Affairs Council, Irish minister Michael McDowell appealed to all Member States to show the necessary political will, but told reporters that he was not 'naively optimistic' about respecting the deadline. European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino admitted that the possibility of failure could not be ruled out.
Failing to meet the 1 May deadline on the asylum policy would signal failing to meet the political commitment made five years ago, but would not have any practical consequences, unless Member States decided to make use of the option available under the Treaty of making use of qualified majority voting on this issue. The Treaty foresees that from 1 May 2004, the Council can decide, through a unanimous vote and after consulting the European Parliament, to move from unanimous voting to qmv for part or all of asylum and immigration policy. While unlikely, moving to qmv would greatly facilitate the adoption of the directive on assessment of asylum applications since every controversial issue only concerns a few Member States, headed by the United Kingdom, which are blocking agreement.
On Tuesday, the Council barely touched on the proposal to harmonise asylum procedures, over which the Member States are at loggerheads and which is of great concern to the UN High Commission for Refugees and NGOs (see EUROPE of 30 March, p.8).
Seeing that there would not be agreement, the Presidency opted to foreshorten the discussion, explained diplomats. The Presidency is to make new proposals, to see whether agreement will be possible, said an Irish source. The latest version of the text proposed by the Presidency already suggests leaving the thorniest issue up to each Member State. It could go even further in this direction, and thus reduce the scope of harmonisation. It is a question of determination and the use of criteria to define safe countries of origin and safe third countries to which asylum seekers can be returned following an accelerated procedure. It is also a matter of whether or not the appeal should be suspensive, and the right to stay on the territory while it is being investigated.
On Tuesday, there were discussions on the possibility of adopted a text à fourteen, excluding the United Kingdom, and the Presidency even put the question to its partners, but nobody really relishes this as a solution, observed Member State sources. Although there are many divisions, the United Kingdom has particularly inflexible stances on many points, said several diplomats. By rights, the United Kingdom, like Ireland, does not participate in the adoption of texts on asylum. These countries enjoy an opt-in, the option to take part in certain texts, but require the agreement of their partners to do so, noted the Council legal service.
The proposed directive on asylum procedures is the last plank of the implementation of the bases of a European common policy. The Fifteen managed on Tuesday to unblock the dossier on the status and rights of refugees (yesterday's EUROPE, p.11). They had already decided how to allocate the duty of investigating asylum applications (Dublin II) and adopted a minima rules on the conditions for welcoming these asylum seekers (EUROPE of 20 December 2002). In virtue of the Treaty, the qualified majority rule will be sued to modify texts already adopted in the field of asylum.