EU presidency seeks to allay concerns over illegal migration issue

Finland's Prime Minister and current head of the EU presidency, Matti Vanhanen, yesterday replied to a letter sent by eight leaders of southern Mediterranean EU member states earlier this week highlighting the importance the EU should give to the problem of illegal immigration.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was one of the signatories to the letter, which also included the backing of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero and French President Jacques Chirac.

In his reply, Mr Vanhanen pledged that his presidency will keep the issue on top of its agenda and announced that the Spanish Prime Minister will give an extensive presentation on the issue and put forward important proposals at the next informal summit of EU leaders in October.

"We must seek joint responses to the problem. Solidarity is best expressed through concrete action. We must carefully prepare the decisions to be made at the December European Council, for the European Union to be able to address the problem effectively," Mr Vanhanen wrote. He said that during the past months, the Finnish presidency has given a lot of importance on the need to cooperate with Africa, the country of origin of illegal immigrants.

"As part of this strategy, the EU is currently preparing the next EU-Africa ministerial conference on migration and development that will take place at the end of November in Tripoli. We consider this meeting both highly important and topical."

On the need to secure the EU's borders, Mr Vanhanen said that the presidency has already put forward an initiative on strategic guidelines for border security. He stressed that all borders, including sea borders, must be considered within the framework of the integrated border security system with due attention to the principle whereby the control and surveillance of external borders fall within the sphere of national border authorities.

"We are in favour of further developing the resources and the planning and management capacities of the European border management agency Frontex. It is clear that operational responsibility lies with the member sates which must have sufficient capacity to plan, manage and implement land, sea and airport operations coordinated by Frontex."

He reminded EU leaders that only recently the EU opened discussions on the regulation governing the authority of border intervention teams. He said the competences of the intervention teams must be both adequate and clearly defined and reiterated that the presidency's objective is to handle discussions on the regulation quickly and effectively.