“Towards a Constitution for Europe: justice and internal affairs. The comments of the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) for the Intergovernmental Conference”: that’s the title of a joint document signed by a several score NGOs that deal with problems of asylum, immigration, penal justice and human rights. It was published to coincide with the opening of the Intergovernmental Conference in Rome and with the justice and internal affairs Council of the EU (Brussels, 2/3 October). The NGOs, expressing their concerns about the draft European Constitution, ask the IGC to “press for the full respect of fundamental human rights and dedicate the necessary attention to the shortcomings apparent in Part III of the draft, on matters regarding immigration, asylum, judicial and police cooperation. Without precise clarification they say some of the provisions of the new Constitution risk being misapplied and lowering current standards in the field of human rights”. These provisions include says the document the one concerning the management of flows of asylum seekers which could “authorise member states to sub-contract to third countries their own duties to provide protection”. The need is also underlined to “clarify and integrate the reference to the fair treatment of citizens of third countries legally resident in the member states; the standards of treatment applied to them must be comparable says the document to those applied to the citizens of EU member states”. The establishment of a “European Public Prosecutor in the context of Eurojust”, the NGOs also point out, “implies the creation of a coherent system of European penal procedure”. The document is available in its entirety on the website www.amnesty-eu.org
