Mr President, as we all know, the last few weeks have been very difficult and we will continue to live in challenging times for many months and years ahead. Therefore, this is a very important debate, and I am delighted that not just the Commissioner but the President-in-Office, Mr Duquesne, are here in person, recognising the importance of this issue. As Mr Duquesne implied in his contribution, if the recent happenings have shown us anything, it is that we cannot turn a blind eye to events around the world and hope that they will go away. The problems of people wanting asylum, the situation and the plight of the people of poor and troubled countries all over the world are our concerns and they manifest themselves on our doorsteps, on our shores and in our parliaments if we do not address them. At one level these problems manifest themselves as debates in this and other parliamentary assemblies. At the worst level we find bodies in lorries at Dover, on the beaches of Spain and other countries. This is the plight of desperate people seeking desperate measures to start a new life. But these people are not resorting to this sort of action lightly; they are escaping from terror, war, torture, rape, vile regimes posing as governments and, of course, in some cases, poverty. So there can be no more appropriate time for countries to be working together to confront these humanitarian challenges. I congratulate the EU Heads of Government for having brought asylum into the Community competence and setting a progressive agenda at Tampere. I congratulate the Commission on these proposals, which have started the debate on how a common asylum policy should be shaped. In my report before Parliament today I am asking for a common and wider interpretation of the Geneva Convention of 1951, a clearer definition of who should be recognised as a refugee and one that is consistent across all 15 countries. Let us also harmonise the treatment asylum seekers receive; let us establish Europe-wide common standards and then make sure that we enforce them. If we adopt this report we can start to establish minimum basic rights, as the Minister and the Commissioner have said, for refugees, for access to welfare, housing, education, health care – things that we in the privileged world take for granted. In recent years it sometimes seemed that EU countries were competing to become the least attractive to potential asylum seekers. Common, Europe-wide standards will inevitably create a more balanced distribution of asylum claims throughout the EU. That must help my city, London, and all the major cities of Europe. It must also stop countries being able to lower their standards, which will be good for asylum seekers, who can be more confident of a fair hearing. That is something of which we should be proud and not ashamed. In addition and crucially, Europe must collectively do far more to address the root causes that lead to people seeking asylum and becoming refugees. Governments must make concerted efforts to help create peace in the troubled parts of the world, however difficult, and to increase aid to developing countries – strong measures that in time will work towards countering the pressures that force people to migrate. It is for the same reasons that we must press ahead with the enlargement of the European Union. As Commissioner Verheugen said recently, we cannot ask ourselves the question: can we afford enlargement of the European Union? Instead we should put the question: can we afford not to enlarge the European Union? In committee, many centre-right and right-wing Members voted against my report in whole or in part. I challenge those Members who are sitting opposite today, not to just give a prepared speech or ignore what I am saying now but to tell us why they are opposing certain parts of it and why they want to diminish the rights of a fair appeal, which is Amendments Nos 6 and 8 by Mr Schmitt. How will this make the system better? To those – perhaps the British Conservatives – who will vote against this report in its entirety, if they were here I would ask them to explain to Parliament how we can address the current asylum situation in Europe without Europe-wide policies. They must recognise that this is a global issue and one that cannot be dealt with on an individual basis in each country. I sympathise with Amendments Nos 11 and 12 by the Green Group, but I cannot support them. We could support them in another report dealing with those escaping from hunger or environmental disasters. However, this is a compassionate report, one with which we can be satisfied but not complacent. In conclusion, I should like to thank my colleagues from my own and other groups for their help and support for this report and for their cooperation. I thank my own group staff for their hard work and I pay tribute to the NGOs that have contributed valuable ideas. I commend the report to Parliament. (Applause)

Political group: PSE