Deportation row prompts MEPs to hold back funds

The European Parliament is denying member states access to €676 million of EU funds because of a row over a proposal to set standards for deporting people illegally staying in the EU.

The money from the EU budget, which should have been available from the start of this year, was earmarked to help pay for member states’ arrangements to return students and workers who over-stay their visas and failed asylum-seekers.

But the Parliament is insisting that the funds should not be released until a compromise is reached over the proposed law, known as the returns directive.

The Slovenian presidency of the EU has made a priority of securing agreement on the directive, first proposed by the European Commission in September 2005, while the Parliament hopes to vote on it in May.

But both MEPs and member states are divided over issues including a maximum 18-month detention period for those being returned home and a five-year ban on re-entering the EU.

The Parliament’s civil liberties committee approved a version last September but the Socialists and the Greens have said that they will vote against the proposal in the plenary if the 18-month detention period is not removed.

"If it stays as it is, it won’t get passed. It’s important that we get this directive but that it’s the right directive," said Jean Lambert, a UK Green MEP and spokeswoman for her group on the directive.

Separately, member states are themselves divided about the proposal and have not yet been able to agree a text. Some countries, including Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, do not want restrictions placed on how they decide to return people, the length of time they can detain them for and the appeals process. Others, such as the Nordic and Benelux countries, want to ensure that the directive has adequate safeguards for those being returned to their home countries.

Negotiations are ongoing between the Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the Commission on reaching a deal on their positions. "We are very pessimistic on this issue…we are very far away from the position of the member states," said one Parliamentary official.

To cajole the member states into compromising and taking into account its views, the Parliament is withholding the return fund for the 2008-13 period. "If there is no agreement, there is no money. It is an incentive for them to compromise," said the official.

But as this is the first time that the Parliament has had co-decision powers over a proposal on migration or asylum policy, some fear such a stance could test the patience of the Council and set a bad precedent for future proposals.

The issue has exercised groups representing refu-gees and asylum-seekers, with some involved in the ‘No to the outrageous directive’ campaign. These groups see any detention of immigrants who have committed no crimes as objectionable.

But the bigger groups, such as the United Nations refugee agency and the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, are maintaining an open mind on the final outcome of the directive because it does contain positive elements, such as not returning unaccompanied minors, ensuring a thorough appeals process and judicial review of detention.

A spokeswoman for the Slovenian presidency said the issue had "top priority" with "meetings scheduled non-stop".

"After two years the time has come for all of us to make a shift in our thinking in order to reach a compromise. Without it, this directive will remain on the table for a long time," Dragutin Mate, Slovenia’s interior minister, told Parliament this week (22 January).

The European Parliament is denying member states access to €676 million of EU funds because of a row over a proposal to set standards for deporting people illegally staying in the EU.