France to call for EU-run asylum policy

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The united States of Europe gets a bit closer if this gets through,

France to call for EU-run asylum policy - Irish Independent


France to call for EU-run asylum policy

Friday September 29th 2006


NATIONAL governments should surrender their powers to judge whether asylum seekers are genuine to a new "single European asylum office", Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to say tomorrow.

The office would be staffed by officials on secondment from their countries, but would judge asylum applications according to EU rules.

Mr Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, is in Madrid for a summit tomorrow of eight EU countries facing large flows of illegal migrants and asylum seekers. A copy of his speech to the summit was leaked to the AFP news agency.

He is expected to combine tough rhetoric against illegal immigration with calls for a sweeping expansion of EU powers over illegal migration.

The Plan

The plan echoes a proposal put forward by the Dutch government in late 2004. The Dutch proposal went nowhere, but several nations continue to back European Commission plans for a common asylum policy, which would harmonise further the rules by which refugee applications are judged.

His address is also expected to propose that the embryonic EU border agency, Frontex, should be able to "requisition military - including naval - and police means to intervene in case of massive influx".

Mr Sarkozy has criticised countries like Spain and Italy for holding large scale amnesties for illegal immigrants, blaming them for encouraging further waves of arrivals, and at the Madrid meeting he will call for all further mass amnesties to be banned.

Earlier this week, the Spanish prime minister, Jose Rodriguez Zapatero, hit back, saying Spain had "no lessons" to learn from France, after the riots that gripped French suburbs.