The process towards the definition of the first real European common policy in the field of asylum and immigration continues. Taking on board the recommendations of the Salonica summit last June, the enlarged EU Council of Ministers of Justice and the Interior, meeting in Brussels in recent days, approved a package of measures, some of them new, others modifications of existing legislation. The measures should permit the final adoption of a EU policy on asylum and immigration in the course of 2004. As far as immigration is concerned, the agreement reached in the Council should allow the right balance to be struck between the crackdown on clandestine immigration and the correct management of legal immigration. Quotas: the Commission shall introduce a system of quotas for entry into the EU; the countries of origin of migratory influxes that collaborate with Brussels in the crackdown on clandestine immigration shall benefit from a greater number of entry permits for their own citizens. Agency: green light for the establishment of a “European Agency for the management of external frontiers”. The Commission shall present a detailed proposal in the course of the Justice and Internal Affairs Council in November. Biometry: the system of photography and digital scanning of the face and fingers of the holders of tourist visas and residence permits shall begin in 2004. Terrorism: a reinforcement of anti-terrrorism strategy shall consist in the establishment of groups of “experts”, charged with the task of collecting data and conducting investigations for the prevention of terrorist attacks. A political agreement was reached by the Council on asylum and the granting of refugee status. The so-called “list of safe countries”, i.e. those non-EU countries able to guarantee fundamental human, civil and political rights within their own frontiers, and whose citizens would therefore have no right to claim the status of refugee in the territories of the Union, was also approved. The Executive will present the list of safe countries to the Justice and Internal Affairs Council on 27 November.
