European leaders meeting in Thessaloniki last night tried to revive the EU's commitment to immigration. In the background, reports of new landings of illegal immigrants and new tragic shipwrecks off the coast of Italian, Greek, English. And it is the southern European countries who ask, in a Union where there are no internal borders (almost) over and where migration flows directly to a member of any other concern, that the "burden" of political control dele borders to share more equally and not only loaded on the countries most exposed.
To begin with, the Heads of State and Government should give their support to two programs offered by the Commission: the first provides for the appropriation of EUR 140 million until 2006 for the promotion of closer cooperation among states, in particular through a plan for computerization of data on visas and through harmonization of procedures for the repatriation of illegal immigrants. The second involves the appropriation until 2008, 250 million euro for the creation of agreements "technical and financial assistance" with the countries of origin of migrants, which would be induced to cooperate in recovering illegal immigrants. So the attention of the Thessaloniki Summit will be including the fight against illegal immigration.
As for asylum but the EU is still on the high seas because of the difficulty of agreeing criteria for the granting of refugee status which is acceptable to all member states. The summit, however, could give the green light to a few pilot projects to create service centers for refugees outside the EU. The United Kingdom in particular, with the support of Denmark, Holland and Austria, has sought to promote the idea of \u200b\u200b"transit centers" designed to deal with applications for asylum in certain parts of Africa and Asia. "The current system is too expensive and vulnerable. The centers would provide protection refugees without forcing them to travel dangerous, "said a British diplomat." It 'a denial of asylum "retorts Amnesty International.
Although in 1999 the Amsterdam Treaty gives the European Union has jurisdiction over immigration and asylum, the progress in this field have been uncertain until now. This is why the Convention has proposed the full communitarisation of immigration policy and the abandonment of the unanimity rule. But it seems not easy to predict that this will do, as long as immigration continues to be treated exclusively as a problem of public order and as long as they continue in the EU policies - such as the Common Agricultural Policy or the co-operation agreements with dictatorial regimes - increased poverty. Britain with its proposal offers the "hands in the pot", but certainly something in the countries of emigration could be done. For example, export a bit less camembert and a little more democracy.
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