Luxembourg, 03/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the EU decided on Friday to launch cooperation with Tripoli against illegal immigration and in favour of asylum policy, on the condition that Libya provide “proof that it is really determined” to respect international rules on rights for refugees. The fate of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor condemned to death for allegedly deliberately injecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus is mentioned in the text as a “priority for the EU”, but without making their fate a condition of launching cooperation. If the death penalty is confirmed for them at the appeal in November “we would have to re-examine this cooperation in light of it” said the Commission Director General for JHA Jonathan Faull, who nonetheless thinks that cooperation should commence before November, “because there are people dying in the Mediterranean”. The Council conclusions also appeal for discussions to be “commenced urgently with the Libyan side on a short-term action to prevent further losses of human life at sea”. The Council President Nicolas Schmit showed caution with regard to the pace of cooperation, emphasising that it would “take time”. The Commission, as the Presidency, emphasised the “difficulty” of such cooperation, progress in which will also depend on “the more general framework of relations with Libya”, and particularly the Barcelona process, said Mr Schmit. In concrete terms, the Council decided on Friday to give the European Commission a mandate to “open as soon as possible exploratory discussions with the Libyan authorities with a view to finding concrete measures to be taken in the fight against illegal immigration in areas such as training, strengthening institutional capacities, asylum issues and raising public awareness of the dangers associated with illegal immigration and examine the conditions in which it would be possible to cooperate”. The approaches envisaged for cooperation are far-reaching, including cooperation to expel illegal immigrants from the EU to Libya (demanded by Italy), the creation with Libya of mechanisms to prevent illegal immigrants arriving, joint operations for the Mediterranean Member States and a temporary EU operational unit which could be allocated ships and airplanes. The Member States also plan to help Libya develop its own asylum legislation, encourage cooperation projects with Libya and its neighbours, and develop similar cooperation with other African countries of origin and transit, including Niger. “Libya is a first stage, we will not stop there”, said Nicolas Schmit. The Council conclusions male no mention of specific sums of money, but the preamble emphasises “the need to show proof of solidarity and fair distribution of responsibility among Member States, including in terms of financial impact”. This point was debated at length, with Germany and subsequently France being opposed right up to the last minute to any mention of joint funding. It was due to the pressing demands of Italy, the main country affected by illegal immigration from Libya, that the Member States introduced the reference to financial solidarity. The Community budget will be in the front line for projects with Libya, the Presidency and Commission indicated. Such projects could for example be led by the brand new European Agency for the Management of External Borders. The European Commission led an initial exploratory mission with national experts in Libya in December 2004, and drew up a report which was the basis of the conclusions adopted on Friday by the Council.
Programme 2005-2010: the Council adopted the action plan 2005-2010 for the freedom, justice and security policy which completes the Hague programme of November 2004. This programme aims mainly to implement and consolidate measures adopted since the launch of the European justice and internal affairs policy at the end of 1999, with several ambitious key dates: 2008 for automatic exchange of information between police forces, 2010 for a joint asylum policy (EUROPE 8822). At the request of German minister Otto Schily, the Council deleted all reference to different funds (for integration, borders etc.) mentioned in the Commission proposals for the action plan (EUROPE 8944) while awaiting the decisions on the financial perspective.
Justice: the Council focused on the action plan against terrorism: the European coordinator Gijs de Vries deplored the delays in the Member States in implementing the texts already adopted, and encouraged them to make progress in order to protect civilians. The Council also focused on the implementation of the European arrest warrant.