Posted on 09/28/2006 5:54:03 PM PDT by blam
EU should run asylum policy, says Sarkozy
By David Rennie in Brussels
(Filed: 29/09/2006)
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 today.
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 of eight EU countries facing large flows of illegal migrants and asylum seekers. A copy of his speech to the summit was leaked to AFP, the news agency.
advertisementHe is expected to combine tough rhetoric against illegal immigration with calls for a sweeping expansion of EU powers over the sensitive sphere of illegal migration.
The plan echoes a proposal put forward by the Dutch government in late 2004, during its turn at holding the EU presidency. 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 such as 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 mass amnesties to be banned.
Earlier this week, the Spanish prime minister, José Rodriguez Zapatero, hit back, saying Spain had "no lessons" to learn from France, after the riots that gripped French suburbs.
The Home Secretary, John Reid, is understood to be an admirer of Mr Sarkozy – a hate figure to many on the French Left because of his demands for tougher action on crime and immigration.
Interesting that the "illegal immigrants" weren't identified in this article. Not even once. Probably Amish, I guess?
Europe is doomed.
Sounds like a bad idea.
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