Brussels, 26/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 26 February, European immigration ministers backed proposals for a European Asylum Support Office put forward last week by the European Commission (see EUROPE 9842). “Virtually everyone backed the measure. We will do all we can to get a decision during our Presidency,” Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer told press. “I thank the Council for its very wide support,” said European Justice, Liberty and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot. “This support office will help us greatly to develop greater solidarity in cooperation between member states,” he said, even though the Office will have “no decision-making powers” on individual asylum requests.
Several countries called for the Office to be up and running as quickly as possible. “We support this proposal,” said Maltese Interior Minister Carmelo Misfud Bonnici, pointing out that the number of immigrants arriving in Malta had increased thirty-fold in the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year. He urged that the Office be put in place “as quickly as possible”. “Our country is ideal for the headquarters of this Office,” he said. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said that this measure was all the more important since, of the 30,000 immigrants arriving on Lampedusa in 2008, 75% had sought asylum. He also supported Malta to house the Office. Cypriot Interior Minister Neoklis Sylikiotis said that his country's administrative system was under great pressure and he called on his colleagues to “move swiftly” to adopt the text under Czech Presidency. It was important for the Office to be located in a Mediterranean country, he argued. Greece, too, supported siting the Office in a southern member state, without naming a preferred option. French Immigration Minister Eric Besson felt that the Office would mean that a “qualitative leap” could be taken in coordinating among national administrations responsible for asylum requests, but felt that it should not take decisions on requests for international protection. Dutch Secretary of State Nebahat Albayrak said it was essential that national immigration services worked closely together in the operation of the Office so that they could feel they “owned” the Office.
While not opposing this new measure, the countries least affected by the influx of immigrants from the South cautioned against getting over-excited. “I think that it will take us a little time to see all the possibilities that this Office offers,” said Swedish Immigration Minister Tobias Billström. Finnish Minister Astrid Thors urged that the aid that the Office could bring should not be “overestimated”. She said there had to be realism, because the Office would be made up of only 100 people. The Austrian representative highlighted the Office's role in “practical cooperation”, through its “un-bureaucratic” organisation. UK Home Affairs Minister Jacqui Smith noted that, while the Support Office was important, working with the countries of origin and transit could not be forgotten, because most of those fleeing persecution do not even make it to the borders of the EU. Following these statements of position, Barrot said to member states, “the Office must to be asked to take your place, nor the Commission's, in setting out an asylum strategy. You and we are the one who are ultimately responsible”. Langer summed up by saying, “Support Office does not mean the solution to all our asylum problems”. The Office could be operational by 2010. (B.C./transl.rt)