Inside the Community

Refugees:

debating the EC's role

by

Luise Druke

(published in: European Community: Asylum and Assistance, REFUGEES Magazine,

UNHCR Headquarters, Geneva, March 1991, pp. 14)

 

More than 150 people, representing a wide range of governments, European Community institutions, international and voluntary organizations, attended the first colloquium on EC refugee policy, which was held in Brussels on 29 January 1991. Organized by the European Parliament's Committee on Cooperation and Development in association with UNHCR, this high-level gathering witnessed an important debate on contemporary refugee problems and the EC's response to them.

Opening the colloquium, European Parliament President Enrique Baron Crespo drew attention to the Community's dual interest in refugee issues. On one hand, he said, the number of uprooted and needy people in the world was growing rapidly, and there was a risk that the world would grow tired of providing them with assistance. As a democratic forum representing citizens in 12 of the world's more prosperous states, the European Parliament had a special role to play in ensuring that human aspirations could be met in the rest of the world. On the other hand, Mr Crespo pointed out, the Community could not ignore the growing number of asylum seekers making their way to those 12 states. "There are new pressures on our borders, but no consensus on how to respond to them. Will the EC become a fortress," he asked, "or a region of asylum?"

Taking up this theme, both Philip Rudge of the European Consultation on Refugees and Exiles and Professor H.U.J. d'Oliveira of the European University Institute in Florence presented a vigorous critique of asylum policy within the EC Professor d'Oliveira accused the member states of erecting a barrier around the Community, arguing that many of the initiatives which they had taken to prevent or deter the arrival of asylum seekers were characterized by "the lack of wisdom and precision that characterizes all emergency legislation." The substantial assistance which the EC provides to refugees overseas, Professor d'Oliveira argued, "should not he used as an alibi for the exclusion of asylum seekers at home."

The following sessions of the colloquium provided a more detailed discussion of the world-wide refugee situation, initiated by statements presented by two members of the European Commission - Manuel Marin and Abel Matutes.

The EC's activities in relation to refugees and related issues take place in a number of different institutions. Several committees help to prepare the work of the democratically elected European Parliament, in a process of consultation with the European Commission and Council. The Legal Affairs and Citizens Rights Committee deals with asylum issues within the EC, while the Development and Co-operation Committee and the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Political Affairs Committee deal with overseas refugee problems.

The EC's assistance to refugees is channeled primarily through articles 254 and 255 of the Fourth Lomé Convention, which links the Community to 69 African, Caribbean and Pacific states, and through article 7302 of the Community's regular budget to Latin America and Asia. The European Commission is the EC's executive organ, responsible for the administration of EC assistance to refugees, while the implementation of EC-financed projects is undertaken by intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations.

The European Council, which brings together the EC Heads of Government and the President of the European Commission, meets two or three times a year. With the Council of Ministers it makes the Community's major policy decisions, based on proposals from the Commission and member states. Both have dealt with refugee and asylum questions, primarily from an intra-Community perspective.

A number of intergovernmental bodies operate within the context of the Council. These include the European Political Co-operation Group, which works towards common policy positions, and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Immigration, which is concerned with the establishment of instruments relating to the free circulation of people, and where the Commission participates as an observer. UNHCR follows their activities with interest, given the efforts which are being made to harmonize asylum policies in Europe. The 1990 Dublin Convention on Asylum, which relates to the problem of which state is responsible for examining an asylum request, represents a landmark in this process. A convention on external borders is still in the process of being elaborated.

 

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