The European People’s Party yesterday slammed the negative stand taken by several EU countries over a proposal designed to assist member states which face a sudden influx of illegal immigrants.

The European Commission proposal was to allow these member states to opt out of asylum rules laying down that migrants who move to other EU countries must be sent back to their country of entry.

The EPP said the decision by France, Germany, the UK and others in the EU Council to block the proposal was “unacceptable” and “insensitive”.

The EPP’s spokesmen on asylum, Simon Busuttil and Georgios Papanikolaou, said the news from the EU Council was very disappointing because large countries were insisting on shifting Europe’s responsibility for asylum seekers onto other member states.

“This is the opposite of the solidarity that one would expect between EU countries,” they said.

The European Parliament had approved the proposal but it needed Council assent to go through. MEPs had also insisted the Commission propose a compulsory solidarity mechanism by the end of 2011 so member states would share the burden of asylum seekers between themselves.

“We continue to insist on this position and if the Council wants to reach an agreement on the review of the Dublin Regulation, then it must show more flexibility,” the EPP said.

It recalled that a number of national courts in different member states were already ordering a stop to Dublin transfers to overburdened member states that could not cope, particularly Greece.

“Unless we change Dublin, the courts will change it for us. The Council’s state of denial does not help,” the EPP representatives said.