European Parliament press service

Brussels, 20/03/06

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

Should the EU create common rules on the return of illegal immigrants?

 

The Committee on Civil Liberties held a joint debate on immigration and asylum on Monday in the presence of 50 members from the Council of Europe parliamentary Assembly. Among the package of six reports they discussed, the most sensitive issue was the proposed directive on the return of third-country nationals residing illegally in Europe, whose purpose is to provide common rules for their expulsion procedure.

 

The directive on return is of special importance for the members of the European Parliament since it will be the first time they can exercise their codecision power over measures dealing with the fight against illegal immigration. The principal aim of the directive as proposed by the Commission is to set up common rules for all Member States promoting the voluntary return of illegal immigrants, limiting the use of coercive measures and imposing time limits for the temporary custody by the host Member State.

 

The rapporteur Manfred Weber (EPP-ED, DE) supported the creation of common procedures for the return of third-country nationals residing illegally. In particular, he pointed out the need for "promoting voluntary repatriation", establishing a 'period of departure' of "four weeks" between the communication of the return decision and the application of the removal order. Weber added that the introduction of a re-entry ban to prevent the entry of expelled immigrants in any Member State of the EU for a given period of time could be effective and would give some EU added value to the new law.

 

Adeline Hazan (PES, FR) stated that her political group is very much "against the procedure of collective return", one of the reasons being the elevated cost of financing common charter flights. Concerning the temporary custody of illegal immigrants by the host country before their return, Hazan insisted that "Member States should not exceed the limit of six months, which is already long".

 

Giusto Catania (EUL-NGL, IT) said that "repatriation procedures have failed" to solve the problem and that it is not possible to establish common rules on expulsions "when the European Union has not been able yet to harmonise the entries".

 

On behalf of the European Commission, Jean-Louis De Brouwer thanked the rapporteur for his support to the proposed text and called for the fast adoption of the directive. Yet Jochen Wollner, representing the Council, objected that "twenty-five different legal systems cannot be harmonised in six months". He said he couldn't be "optimistic" about the possibility of finalising the first reading during the Austrian Presidency: "This directive is not likely to be dealt with in a year. Discussions can take place but we will not be able to draw any conclusion" so fast.

 

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