Spain pushes for asylum fund

Date: 11/03/1999

By Gareth Harding

SPAIN is pushing the EU to set up a €3-billion fund to help countries such as Germany cope with the numbers of refugees crossing its borders and offset the negative effects of enlargement to the East.

The move is being portrayed by Premier José Maria Aznar's government as a bid to break the log-jam over how EU countries share the burden of asylum-seekers entering the Union. But others see it as a cynical ploy by Madrid to keep its precious regional funds, in the ongoing talks on EU budgetary reform.

In a letter to Union leaders and European Commission President Jacques Santer, the Spanish prime minister proposes setting up two new EU programmes.

The first is aimed at helping the poorer regions which border the applicant countries of central and eastern Europe deal with the problems likely to be caused by enlargement. The second would see the creation of a special fund to aid EU states currently bearing the brunt of influxes of refugees from war-torn areas.

Germany, which receives by far the greatest number of asylum-seekers, stands to gain most from the proposed fund. A Spanish official estimated that up to 90&percent; of the €3 billion could go to Bonn, with the remainder largely shared out between Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands - all countries which receive a disproportionately high number of refugees and which are holding out for a cut in their contributions to the EU's budget.

Aznar said his offer was meant to “find a compromise solution acceptable to all in the Agenda 2000 negotiations”.

Italy, France and the Commis-sion have all given their support to the plan, according to Spanish sources. But others are questioning where the money for the fund would come from.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer described Madrid's idea as “interesting” but queried who would finance it, and a spokesman for the Dutch government said that if the €3 billion was on top of what the EU already spends, it would face difficulties.

Speaking in Milan last week, Dutch Premier Wim Kok said a common European asylum policy would be a “major step forward”.

Wary of member states' sensitivities in this area, the Commission last week said it would lay down “common minimum standards” for governments when dealing with asylum-seekers once the Amster- dam Treaty comes into force.