WRITTEN QUESTION E-2615/00

by Anna Karamanou (PSE) to the Council

(1 September 2000)

Subject: Immigration and development

With a view to the informal meeting of the Council of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs to be held in Marseille on 28/29 July 2000, where one of the topics on the agenda will be immigration and asylum, and bearing in mind that mass immigration is a phenomenon that will not decline until the economic, political and social conditions in underdeveloped countries improve, will the Council support the cancellation of Third World debt and urge the Member States to allocate 0,7 % of GDP to the poor countries, in line with the commitments they have given? In view of the demographic development predicted by UN reports for the next 50 years, would it not be appropriate to draw up an integrated European policy on asylum and immigration, based on European humanitarian values, with transparent rules governing the entry and residence of third country nationals and including the prospect of legal immigration?

Reply

(10 November 2000)

The Council has, on 8 November 1999, adopted conclusions supporting the debt relief initiative for highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) launched by the IMF and the World Bank in September 1996.

In these conclusions, the Council agreed a Community contribution in the order of magnitude of 1 billion of which the creditor part should be in the range of 320 to 380 million. Actual disbursement was, however, made conditional on reasonable burden sharing with other international donors.

Nevertheless, the EU has fully met its commitment to the HIPC Trust Fund by disbursing a first tranche of assistance. The EU is urging donors, who have not yet done so, to deliver their committed contributions as soon as possible.

With regard to the second part of the question relating to an integrated European policy on asylum and immigration, the Council would remind the Honorable Member that the Treaty itself in Title IV provides for the Council, in establishing progressively an area of freedom, security and justice, to adopt rules in the area of asylum and migration as set out in Article 63 of the Treaty including rules relating to the entry and residence of third country nationals. The European Council in Tampere called inter alia for a comprehensive approach to migration addressing political, human rights and development issues in countries and regions of origin and transit, a Common European Asylum System, based on the full and inclusive application of the Geneva Convention, fair treatment of third country nationals who reside legally on the territory of its Member States with a more vigorous integration policy aimed at granting them rights and obligations comparable to those of EU citizens as well as approximation of national legislations on the conditions for admission and residence of third country nationals, based on a shared assessment of the economic and demographic developments within the Union, as well as the situation in the countries of origin. The Commission has forwarded various proposals flowing from the conclusions of the Tampere European Council, proposals which are currently under consideration within the Council.