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EU pushes for more patrols
15/01/2007 09:33 - (SA)
Dresden - European Union officials will press the EU justice and interior ministers on Monday to provide boats and planes to help the bloc's southern members deter new flows of illegal migrants crossing from Africa by sea.
EU justice and home affairs commissioner Franco Frattini told reporters on the eve of the two day meeting that he would "appeal to all ministers to provide concrete contributions by April, because otherwise it will be too late to face the year".
He called on all 27 EU nations to show solidarity and back a decision by its leaders last December to set up permanent patrols on Europe's southern frontier to stem the thousands of poor migrants trying to get into Europe.
Frattini said patrols had to be organised now to take advantage of the current slowdown in flows due to the winter weather and stormy seas.
31 000 migrants flee poverty
Germany's interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who was hosting the talks, said: "We have to support one another. That means if a member state is faced with a difficult situation, that member state should be able to count on support."
Only a few EU member states contributed boats and planes to the EU's first hastily arranged patrols off Spain's Canary Islands last August.
The patrols were meant to help stranded migrants, many of whom made perilous journeys from sub-Saharan Africa and later set out in rickety boats in their efforts to start a new life.
Spain said it took in at least 31 000 mostly African migrants fleeing poverty last year - almost as many as in the previous four years combined.
Portugal's interior minister Antonio Costa said: "We must not forget we have a single common border and that common border has to be our common responsibility and that's why the EU established the European borders agency."
Europol tops agenda
The justice and interior ministers of Germany, Portugal and Slovenia held talks on Sunday to prepare the agenda for the talks, which were to focus on boosting the EU's security policies, notably in police co-operation to better tackle organised crime and terrorism.
Schaeuble said he would put boosting the powers and scope of the EU's police investigations agency, Europol, at the top of the agenda.
EU officials had emphasised that the agency, based in The Hague, Netherlands, needed more money and staff as well as giving it the power to co-ordinate joint operations in counter terrorism and serious cross-border crimes.
Germany had suggested Europol also be given the right to monitor terrorist activities on the Internet.
On immigration, the three countries agreed to push for renewed efforts to get EU governments to agree to a common immigration and asylum policy by 2010, a plan first agreed to in 2004. But, progress on which had been limited due to the hesitancy of many EU nations to co-ordinate immigration policies.
- AP
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