Ministerial Meeting, Munich (Hansard, 9 June 1988)

§ Mr. Hurd

The Ministers of the States of the European Community responsible for counter-terrorism and immigration met on 3 June in Munich under the chairmanship of Dr. Zimmermann, the Minister of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany. Lord Cockfield, a Vice-President of the European Commission, was present for the discussion of immigration matters.

In the immigration meeting we reviewed the position on possible changes in controls at the internal borders of the Community in the light of the Single European Act. Some of my colleagues envisaged that it might become possible to abolish immigration frontier controls within the Community if a series of conditions were fulfilled. These conditions would include the strengthening of controls at the external frontiers of the Community, including the full harmonisation of visa requirements. Others agreed with 644W the United Kingdom that it was not possible to envisage the abolition within the foreseeable future of all immigration controls over third country nationals at intra-Community borders. All the Ministers present endorsed the statement by the presidency that no decision to abolish these controls had been taken.

Frontier controls were also discussed, at my initiative, in the Trevi meeting in view of their importance in continued international cross-border co-operation to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and other crime. My colleagues unanimously accepted my suggestion that the Trevi machinery should be used to consider the implications of changes in frontier controls and the kind of measures which could be taken to off-set potential security disadvantages which might otherwise result from the implementation of the European internal market.

At the immigration meeting, we had before us a further report from the ad hoc group of senior officials established in 1986 during the United Kingdom presidency. We endorsed the recommendations made by that group, including recommendations for improved co-ordination between the representatives of member states in third countries, in assessing conditions in those countries which are relevant to the grant of visas, and to the consideration of applications for asylum.

My colleagues and I continue to be concerned at the considerable increase in some member states of the European Communities in the number of applications for asylum from persons who do not satisfy the criteria laid down in the 1951 Geneva refugee convention and appear to be exploiting the asylum procedure for purposes for which it is not intended. We therefore reaffirmed our aim of guaranteeing every asylum seeking the right to have his application examined in one of the member states but equally the aim of preventing the abuse whereby the same foreign national made different asylum applications in several member states. We welcomed the progress made towards establishing the necessary criteria for determining which state should be responsible for considering any individual application.

In the Trevi meeting we also discussed events since our previous meeting in Copenhagen in December, including the recent murderous attacks by the Provisional IRA in the Netherlands. There was unanimous and wholehearted condemnation of the Provisional IRA and my colleagues supported my suggestion that this should be recorded in the presidency press statement issued after the meeting.

Various measures to intensify co-operation were agreed including priority search measures for major terrorists, improved gathering of information on terrorist movements and the immediate exchange of information following a major terrorist incident. Proposals for greater co-operation between Trevi states in the forensic field will be developed by officials. We also agreed a refined and updated assessment of the terrorist threat to Community countries.

Further co-operation to combat drug trafficking using the drug liaison officer network was agreed.

My colleagues also agreed to my proposal that we should study ways of confiscating funds intended to support terrorism. The United Kingdom Government's proposals for legislation to replace the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1984, which expires in March 1989, will provide a starting point for that study.