§ Sir John WheelerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about the meeting of European Community Immigration and Trevi Ministers which he chaired in London on 30 November and 1 December.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe meeting of Ministers concerned with immigration was the 13th in the series of meetings held towards the end of each presidency since 1986.
Ministers approved a number of texts forming part of the immigration and asylum work programme endorsed by the Maastricht European Council a year ago. These consisted of
(i)A resolution on manifestly unfounded applications for asylum, which defines the cases to which it is appropriate to apply accelerated procedures;(ii)A resolution on "host third countries", which sets out objective criteria defining the circumstances in which it is appropriate to return an asylum applicant to a safe third country for substantive consideration of the application;(iii)Conclusions on countries in which there is generally no serious risk of persecution, which create a presumption against the claim of an asylum applicant from a country which is generally regarded as safe;(iv)A recommendation regarding practices followed by member states on expulsion, designed to encourage best practice both in the effective removal of persons unlawfully in the territory of the member states and in the application of safeguards against unjustified or arbitrary expulsion;(v) A recommendation regarding transit for the purposes of expulsion, which lays down procedures to be followed where it is necessary for a person being expelled to transit to another member state.Ministers also considered a draft resolution on harmonisation of national policies on family reunification. They agreed the bulk of the text, but remitted one issue for further consideration by officials.
Ministers also approved conclusions on people displaced from former Yugoslavia and in particular the need for a more co-ordinated approach to the problem.
I am placing in the Library of the House copies of all the documents that were approved by Immigration Ministers, together with the press communiqué.
Ministers discussed developments on the free movement of persons in 1993 and exchanged views on their plans and intentions in respect of internal frontiers.
Discussion at the meeting of Trevi Ministers on I December focused on the establishment of Europol and in particular its first stage, the Europol drugs unit. The Ministers agreed that they wished to establish Europol, and in particular the Europol drugs unit, as quickly as possible. The meeting was unable to decide upon a location for the unit and this decision will now rest with the European Council.
Trevi Ministers also approved a number of reports from individual Trevi working groups on police co-operation against terrorism, police training and the co-ordination of intergovernmental police co-operation.