Luxembourg, 14/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - Warsaw is to host the seat of the European Border Agency. Although it was expected that discussions would drag on for another few weeks, the Presidency put the question to the vote at the end of lunch at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg, on Thursday. After a first indicative vote, Malta, Estonia and Slovenia withdraw their candidature, and the Hungarian delegation consulted its capital before accepting defeat, a diplomatic source said. “I am delighted with the decision”, Polish Interior Minister Ryszard Kalisz told a small group of journalists, welcoming the fact that Poland is hosting a European agency “for the first time”. In his view, the agency should be able to begin operating in Warsaw in the second half of May, towards the end of the month. The exact location of the agency's seat has not yet been decided but the palace of culture and science, a huge building symbolic of the Stalin period, is one of the possibilities, he pointed out. Member States must now appoint a director. A Finnish national and an Italian are in the running.
Several hours earlier, the German Minister for the Interior, Otto Schily, was highly critical of the Commission's JHA budget proposals for 2007-2013 (EUROPE 8922), declaring that he wanted funding for the European Border Agency because it is a 25-member project although most of the spending for EU external border protection is a “national” task with only national funding. In his view, only projects that are for several States should receive European budget financing. Mr Kalisz urges, on the contrary, for the EUR 2.15 billion proposed by the Commission for external borders to be approved. “I shall try to convince Mr Schily and ask him to understand the situation of Poland as a State with a very, very long border”, he told several journalists, adding that this is “not only in the interest of Poland but of the EU as a whole”. During the Council, Greece, Italy and Cyprus, which have the longest external EU borders, immediately protested against Mr Schily's declarations, although they were supported by the British delegation.
Readmission agreement with Albania: The EU and Albania signed an agreement on Thursday for the readmission of illegal migrants, providing for Albania to allow re-entry to its nationals in an unlawful situation intercepted in the EU, but also those of another nationality who crossed Albanian territory.
Mutual information on illegal immigration: As foreseen, the Council called on the Commission to prepare a proposal for May for a mutual information mechanism on national measures relating to immigration and asylum which have a European impact. After the discussion, it was not specified whether the information will be compulsory.
Injunction to pay: Member States decided to limit the European injunction to pay procedure relating to crossborder disputes. The procedure was suggested by the European Commission in March 2004 to provide a framework to the regulation of small unchallenged debts. The Commission would like it to be able to apply to disputes within one and the same Member State, this leaving the parties a free choice, but 21 Member States took a stance in favour of restricting crossborder affairs. Only Spain, Italy, Belgium and Hungary to a certain extent gave their support to the Commission's position, European Sources say.
Rome Convention: The ten new member States signed the 1980 Rome Convention on Thursday on the law applying to contractual relations.