Illegal immigration rift hinges on time limits

Summary:

Interior ministers from the EU member states will discuss proposed rules on the common treatment of illegal immigrants next week (28 February 2008) in a bid to reach agreement on a fiercely contentious dossier. Several countries are pushing for positions substantially different from those of MEPs, who have powers of co-decision on the legislation. A particular point of difficulty is whether immigrants should be given a period of time to leave a country voluntarily, before they are forced to do so by the authorities.