WRITTEN QUESTION P-2933/98

by Gerhard Hager (NI) to the Council

(24 September 1998)

Subject: Secondary law in the field of immigration and asylum policy

As the documents show, there have been some 70 Council legal acts in the field of immigration policy in the last few years.

Which acts are involved, specifically? Please give details, with the appropriate references.

Are there moves for more extensive coordination of the law?

What is the Council's explanation for the fact that the aim of "sustainably influencing the reality of migration through the European Union in an empirically verifiable manner"(1) has not, after all, succeeded?

Where and how are data from the Centres for Information, Discussion and Exchange on Asylum and on the Crossing of Borders and Immigration accessible to the public or MEPs?

Reply

(20/21 December 1998)

1. As the Honourable Member will know, the instruments adopted by the Council in the area of immigration and asylum cover various aspects and constitute important steps towards the gradual building of a common strategy in the area of immigration and asylum policy. For ease of reference a list of instruments adopted in the immigration and asylum areas will be forwarded directly to the Honourable Member.

2. Discussions are under way within the competent Council bodies on the Commission's proposal for a convention on rules for the admission of third-country nationals(2). This proposal takes a comprehensive approach for dealing with legal immigration policy issues. It is recalled that, on 8 December 1997, in accordance with Article K.6(2) of the Treaty on European Union, the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council submitted the Commission's proposal to the European Parliament for its views.

3. A second initiative by the Commission in this area concerns the situations of mass influx of displaced persons, and resulted in two proposals, namely the amended proposal for a joint action concerning temporary protection of displaced persons and the proposal for a joint action concerning solidarity in the admission and residence of beneficiaries of the temporary protection of displaced persons(3). The European Parliament has been consulted also in this matter.

4. In addition, in the context of the progressive establishment of an area of freedom, security and justice, Title IV of the EC Treaty as it will be amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam requires the Council to adopt specific measures on immigration and asylum policies.

5. The data contained in CIREFI and CIREA documents are subject to the conditions laid down in the Council Decision of 20 December 1993 on public access to Council documents(4), as subsequently amended by the Council Decision of 6 December 1996(5). Attention is drawn to the fact that since these data are supplied by Member States, under Article 4(1) of this Decision, access to a Council document containing such data is not granted inter alia where its disclosure could undermine the protection of confidentiality required by the legislation of the Member State that supplied any of the information contained in that document.

(1) Strategy paper on immigration and asylum policy 9809/98, ASIM 170 [unofficial English version of quotation as document not available - Translator's note].

(2) OJ C 337, 7.11.1997, p. 9.

(3) OJ C 268, 27.8.1998, p. 13.

(4) OJ L 340, 31.12.1993, p. 43.

(5) OJ L 325, 14.12.1996, p. 19.