-Council and Commission statements before Parliament on preparations of Seville Council
The Seville Summit due to take place on 21/22 June will mainly concentrate on enlargement, immigration and economic issues.
Speaking for the Spanish Presidency, Ramón de Miguel, Secretary of State for European Affairs, outlined priorities for the Seville Summit. The main areas under discussion would be the economy, enlargement, Justice and Home Affairs including immigration, future developments of the Union under the Convention and the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
As far as the economy was concerned, the accent would be on promoting reforms to make the EU a more dynamic area, reviewing the broad economic policy guidelines and the tax package to include energy, savings and company taxation. The aim was to ensure better regulation and security of energy supplies and sustainable development. After saying that he would take up enlargement issues in the debate this afternoon, Mr Miguel then concentrated on Justice and Home Affairs, where he said the priority was to develop an immigration and asylum policy post-Tampere which would involve strengthening controls at the EU's borders with a view to a clampdown on illegal immigration, whilst at the same time operating a balanced policy towards genuine refugees. The aim was to integrate immigration policy into the general EU decision-making area.
On institutional reforms of Council itself, Mr Miguel emphasised the aim was to streamline and simplify procedures with a view to preparing for enlargement.
President Romano PRODI responded for the Commission and turned immediately to the substantial progress made by the candidate countries towards accession. The Seville Summit would be an opportunity to confirm the 'road map' to accession and President Prodi was optimistic that the first countries would be ready to join in 2004
The second part of President Prodi's speech was dedicated to immigration and enlargement. He remarked that citizens had a legitimate right to be secure in Europe. However, EU citizens should not be concerned about a huge influx of immigrants from the candidate countries and should not 'demonise' immigration.
See Prodi speech
Commissions Seville Summit web page
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