08 February 2001 22:21

Press release

EU open to refugees

Today at the informal ministerial meeting in Stockholm, EU ministers with responsibility for asylum and migration affairs discussed how to proceed with the harmonisation of the Community’s refugee policy. The objective is to agree on common minimum rules on the provision of protection to refugees and others in need. The ministers agreed that the EU should be open to refugees. Several of them considered that harmonisation should be as far-reaching as possible, but that it should be introduced by means of a gradual process.

"This shows that fears of a ¡'Fortress Europe¡' are exaggerated. The strengthening of efforts to develop a common European asylum system has top priority in this area for the Swedish Presidency. Today’s discussion has confirmed what we said in Tampere about the goal being to develop a common European asylum system. It should be characterised by solidarity and the full application of the Geneva Convention¨, says Minister for Migration and Asylum Affairs, Maj-Inger Klingvall.

A common migration policy in the EU must of course include a great deal more than just asylum issues. It also includes other matters relating to immigration, but asylum issues should nevertheless serve as a fundamental feature of a common policy. Several ministers emphasised the importance of linking asylum issues to other forms of migration. Many people who seek asylum are in actual fact migrants and not in need of protection. In this context it is therefore important to also discuss immigration for labour reasons.

Today’s meeting illustrated that several of the objectives associated with the harmonisation of asylum policy complement each other:

Asylum seekers, individuals in need of protection and others who want to settle in or visit our countries should feel assured that they will receive a similar assessment of their reasons and an equally good reception irrespective of what country they turn to.
Common rules and norms can contribute to a division of responsibilities between the EU Member States.

The EU Member States confirm their international commitments and values such as solidarity, humanity and the rule of law.

The creation of a region of freedom, security and justice within the EU.

"As chairman, I highlighted the ambition that we should endeavour to agree on a high level of common minimum norms, in order to improve the asylum system throughout Europe. This would also reduce the problems associated with so-called ¡'asylum shopping', which many Member States perceive as a major problem. From the perspective of the individual too, it is positive if the rule of law can be strengthened all over the Union.

Today´s meeting on asylum issues showed that there are still different
views on what should be included in the concept of subsidiary protection.

At the same time there is ¡V in compliance with the conclusions from the summit in Tampere -  a broad consensus that we should offer protection even to others than those covered by the Geneva Convention. The countries with more generous systems, for example Sweden, should not need to lower their standards. We now look forward to the Commission´s proposals in this area.

We have also discussed how to meet the challenges that large-scale smuggling of human beings and illegal immigration pose to our countries.

Several of the Union´s Member States consider this a great problem. Certain countries emphasised the importance of control measures, for example, greater police cooperation in the Balkans. The Swedish Presidency stressed the importance of basing efforts on a preventive perspective. We have therefore discussed how we can counteract transit and smuggling of human beings by strengthening asylum systems and migration policy legal orders, for example in candidate and other neighbouring countries.