Karamanou (PSE).
– (EL) Mr President, unfortunately, because we have no consistent,
integrated policy on asylum and immigration, we are being bombarded by
initiatives by Member States trying to intervene, in a totally fragmented
manner, in various areas, and either ignoring or circumventing the
institutional and legal framework of the European Union, as in the case of the
present initiatives by France, Finland and Portugal, which the European
Parliament would do well to reject, precisely as our rapporteurs, whom I
congratulate, have proposed.
This Chamber must stress once again that
the Council can only exercise implementing powers which would otherwise be
awarded to the Commission in specific cases and once a detailed statement of
grounds has been given. Today the Council wants us to believe that visas and
border checks are a specific case and to reserve for itself the implementing
powers which belong to the Commission. At the same time, of course, it is
ignoring the European Parliament and the required consultation procedure by
amending decisions without consulting the European Parliament.
In resorting to these tactics, the Council
is doing nothing to speed up the process of shaping a common European
immigration policy; on the contrary, it is being obstructive, it is failing to
take decisions and the Tampere process is making no headway whatsoever, thereby
sustaining a climate in Europe which fosters racism and xenophobia and results
in the sort of accident which we saw in Dover. There can be no doubt whatsoever
that, if we want to create a common European area of security and justice, we
need to oppose unilateral initiatives by Member States and make standard
arrangements. Everyone crossing a border into Europe should be subject to the
same rules and requirements, thereby ensuring smooth entry and residency
procedures. Individual Member States and individual legal systems cannot be
given the discretion to examine visa applications. Of course, we hardly need
stress yet again that fortifying the borders and policing measures will do
nothing to reduce migratory pressures and illegal border crossings as long as
there is a huge prosperity differential between our countries and our
neighbours.
So what the Council should do is to
authorise the Commission, on the basis of the Tampere procedure, to take the
necessary initiatives so that we can use assent procedures to introduce, as
quickly as possible, a common immigration policy which regulates all
outstanding issues fairly and is based on our common humanitarian European
values and democratic tradition.