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What the EU has in store in 2009

Wednesday, 7th January 2009

The flood of directives and legislation coming out of Brussels and affecting all our lives will continue unabated during 2009. Take a look at these for starters:

Full EU control over immigration

The European Commission is re-doubling its efforts to develop a common immigration policy.
The EU already has extensive powers over Britain’s immigration rules, but now wants to expand these powers. The European Union aims to;

•     take over the co-ordination of immigration
•     promote legal immigration into the UK
•     control the fight against illegal immigration
•     manage the security issues which arise from immigration
•     importantly, the EU also wants to control how integration is handled

The EU also aims to beef-up the powers of FRONTEX, its border agency, to implement the EU’s policies.

Commission Communication: A common immigration policy for Europe: principles, actions and tools COM(08) 359

The EU's asylum policies

The EU aims to create the completion of a Common European Asylum System.
The EU already controls the minimum standards for the treatment of asylum seekers, the minimum rules for granting and withdrawing refugee status and the minimum standards for granting temporary protection. The EU also controls the database recording asylum seekers details. Now it wishes to grab more power which will allow the EU to:

•     establish a European Support Office to further control the policies of member states
•     determine who is a refugee allowing the EU to decide who should enter the UK
•     make asylum more accessible
•     grant more rights to those who qualify for subsidiary protection
•     make the system more responsive to gender and other ‘vulnerable groups’
•     create a single procedure across all EU member states, which will undermine the independence of the UK’s legal system in that area

The EU also wants to give refugees easier access to the labour market. This is bound to increase the number of fraudulent asylum applications and increase economic migration making unemployment in Britain even higher.

Commission Communication: Policy plan on asylum – an integrated approach to protection across the EU COM(08) 360

Watch this space for more information on what Brussels has in store for us.

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