Brussels, 21/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - An agreement on the proposal for a directive on the return of illegal immigrants to their countries of origin may be found very soon, Slovenian Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said on 18 December. Slovenia is next in line for holding the rotating EU Council presidency for six months. On the occasion of a political trilogue dedicated to the Return Directive, the minister said that an agreement could be reached “within two months”, despite the fact that EP and Council positions differ over a number of crucial points, such as the period of detention for illegal immigrants. The Council has come to a maximum 6-month detention period. The relevant parliamentary committee considers for its part that this temporary holding period must not exceed 18 months (EUROPE 9500). The two institutions have also expressed differences about the ban on re-entry into the EU of a person that has already been forced to return to his/her country of origin. The Parliament and Council appear to have agreed that a ban on re-entry should be imposed for a maximum five-year period. MEPs called, however, for this ban to be decided by each member state on a case by case basis, rather than being an obligation as the Council advocates. The report by Manfred Weber, the Parliament rapporteur, mainly focuses on these different points. He also recalled that, from the parliamentarians' point of view, unaccompanied minors should not be detained or made to leave the EU. Speaking for the Portuguese EU presidency, Interior Minister Rui Perreira stressed the importance of approving adoption of the directive, specifying that, in his view, conditions do now exist for adoption in first reading (initially scheduled for January 2008 in Strasbourg). Immigration Commissioner Franco Frattini, for his part, welcomed the existence of a compromise on certain tricky issues, such as the definition of the directive's goal and the principle of an entry ban. He nonetheless felt it was necessary to leave it up to experts to resolve the technical and legal aspects of the issue, and that the formal trilogue should only tackle the political aspects. He also suggested holding a formal trilogue during February 2008 in order to assess progress made by the informal trilogues. Despite the optimism shown at political level, there still seem to be difficulties that must be overcome. Proof of this lies in the fact that the current voting dates in plenary assembly have been deferred from January to May. It is also obvious that left-wing groups will not support the 18 months temporary detention period set out in the proposal of the civil liberties committee (LIBE). The Slovenian presidency will therefore have a great deal of work ahead of it if it wants to reach an agreement before the end of its term of office. At the present time, the member states apply different rules on procedures to be followed when they want to send unlawful immigrants home. In order to remedy this situation, the European Commission had suggested a draft directive (codecision) in August 2005 (EUROPE 9018). Given the growing pressure of illegal immigration on certain countries of the EU, the heads of state and government had strongly encouraged the Council and the EP, at the European Council on 14 December, to find an agreement as soon as possible on this proposal for a directive. (B.C.)