Brussels, 02/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday in a statement to the press, European Commissioner Antonio Vitorino declared "for five years we have achieved substantial progress in most areas of the freedom, security and justice area". Vitorino was speaking about this policy launched in 1999 with the Treaty of Amsterdam and the European Council of Tampere. Although Vitorino recognised that decisions on the areas of asylum, legal immigration and co-operation over penal legal matters were often binding, there was still a price to pay due to the demand for unanimity when adopting a draft and the degree of ambition that was lower than what the Commission considered necessary. The Commissioner for justice and home affairs underlined that "moments of joy" had accompanied the "great depression" in this particularly difficult area. He insisted on the fact that this policy was in its initial stages, given that it had only been launched 5 yeas ago. Vitorino, who gave a rare press conference during his mandate, by presenting his balance sheet, is hoping that "the legacy of these five years is sufficient" to make this policy into an "EU priority".
Vitorino looked at the different dimensions to this balance sheet (detailed in EUROPE yesterday). On asylum, he congratulated the EU for having finished its first phase on adopting minimum common standards, even if for examining asylum requests, ambitions was lacking. The Commissioner rejected the harsh criticism of Amnesty International and other NGOs by declaring that they had not taken into sufficient account the progress achieved and the need to fight against abuses (EUROPE yesterday p 12). He is now hoping to move onto the next stage, that of a common asylum system. On immigration, he regretted the lack of a "co-ordinated policy on economic immigration" and hoped that the EU would now concentrate on this objective, as well as integration of immigrants. Commissioner Vitorino highlighted the "remarkable success" in civil legal co-operation. He considered that there had been "substantial progress that had been difficult to obtain" in the sphere of penal legal co-operation. He was of the opinion that Member States had "got over the cultural step" in penal matters, which had been considered as a solely national affair. The commission called on Member States to act in unison. Asked about the common declaration signed on 28 March by Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg for police co-operation against terrorism, including DNA data exchange, the Commissioner declared that it was important to settle the issue of data protection at a European level in order to guarantee common standards. He pointed out that the Commission would very soon be presenting proposals on the protection of data at a European level, as well as on cross-border co-operation in police matters. He said that he hoped that ministers from the five countries would meet their commitment to be open about the participation of other countries, adding that the best way to act was in the EU.