LONDON CONFERENCE ON CLOSER COORDINATION OF IMMIGRATION AND JUSTICE POLICIES WITHIN THE EC
On November 30, EC-Ministers in charge of immigration, justice and home affairs gathered for a two day conference. Little has leaked from the 'confidential' preparatory work for the conference, as well as from its considerations.
While disagreement appears to be the main outcome with respect to harmonization of immigration, policing and internal security policies, the Minister's determination to further undermine one of the most important traditions of European democracies, the right of asylum, seems obvious.
In the following, we present a critical synopsis of the meeting's considerations, based mainly on the documents relating the decisions taken by the Ministers, preparatory documents produced by the Ad hoc group 'Immigration', two critical synoptical up-dates by the British Immigration an Law Practitioners' Association ILPA), as well as international press dispatches. However, as a result of the extraordinary amount of secrecy and lack of transparency surrounding decision making in the Community, we can not guarantee for the accuracy of the below.