EU asylum procedure:
Greens/EFA welcome progress on asylum
The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament welcomed today's endorsement by MEPs of a new report on the next steps for EU asylum policy. The report, written by London's Green MEP Jean Lambert, incorporates better co-operation and consistency between EU Member States on the treatment of asylum applications. Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the idea of outsourcing holding centres to North Africa to deal with asylum seekers. Members also accepted a Greens/EFA proposals to create a body to monitor people whose asylum applications are rejected and are returned to the country of origin.
Speaking after the vote in Strasbourg Jean Lambert said:
"I am delighted that Parliament has put down a strong marker that it wants to improve European asylum policy. This is first Parliamentary vote on the issue since enlargement and the elections. The result throws down a challenge to many Member State governments."
"MEPs have told the Council that asylum is not just about inconvenient newspaper headlines; it involves genuine cases of life and death for some asylum seekers. For rejected claims there is now agreement that we have a duty to find out what happens to the claimants when they are returned to their country of origin. In this way we can establish whether we judged the claim correctly or not."
"We have also said to the Council that we are not convinced by the concept of 'safe' third countries. Parliament has stressed that we need to improve and share the quality of the information about what is really happening in the countries from which refugees flee. This has ramifications for EU foreign and security policy and our duties in conflict prevention. None of these improvements will be possible however, without more funding. Parliament supported my demand that we don't just rearrange the existing aid budget but put new money into solving problems on the ground."
[ENDS]
Note to editors: the Lambert report on asylum procedure and protection in regions of origin was adopted with a majority of 321 votes in favour, 246 against and 13 abstentions.