WRITTEN QUESTION E-0624/00 by Avril Doyle (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Asylum levels and moves towards a common asylum and immigration policy.
C 374 E/122 Official Journal of the European Communities EN 28. 12. 2000 (2000/C 374 E/144) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0624/00 by Avril Doyle (PPE-DE) to the Commission (3 March 2000) Subject: Asylum levels and moves towards a common asylum and immigration policy Would the Commission provide a summary of the overall level of asylum-seekers entering the EU over the last year, comment on the trend in levels of asylum-seekers into the EU over the past five years, list the level of asylum seekers per capita, per Member State, and comment on recent developments in forging a common asylum and immigration policy. Answer given by Mr Vitorino on behalf of the Commission (13 April 2000) The recent developments in forging a common asylum and immigration policy include Title IV of the new EC Treaty which entered into force on 1 May 1999; the presidency conclusions of the special European Council in Tampere of 15-16 October 1999, and in particular points 3, 4 and 10 to 27; and in particular Commission initiatives such as towards Common standards on asylum proceduresí a Commission working document dated 3 March 1999 (1), a proposal for a Council regulation concerning the establishment of Eurodací for the comparison of the fingerprints of applicants for asylum and certain other aliens, 26 May 1999 (2), a proposal for a Council directive on the right to family reunification, 1 December 1999 (3), and a proposal for a Council decision creating a European refugee fund, 14 December 1999 (4). Finally there is the áscoreboardí to review progress on the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice in the Union, presented by the Commission to the Council and the Parliament. Two tables illustrating asylum applications are sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliamentís Secretariat. (1) SEC(1999) 271 final. (2) COM(1999) 260 final. (3) COM(1999) 638 final. (4) COM(1999) 686 final. (2000/C 374 E/145) WRITTEN QUESTION E-0626/00 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Council (2 March 2000) Subject: Kosovo: the right of the Serb minority to move to safe areas with a Serb majority 1. Is the Council aware that, since the establishment of the new authority in 1999, many of the remaining members of the Serb minority still living in Kosovo have no longer been able to travel freely within Kosovo and move (temporarily or permanently) to areas under the authority of the Government of Serbia or Montenegro, both because this section of the population is viewed with contempt by the Albanian majority, who were discriminated against between 1987 and 1999, and because there is inadequate manpower to provide military or police escorts to allow them to travel safely? 2. Can the Council confirm that in part of the town of Orahovac in Kosovo the Serb population now finds itself in a situation strongly reminiscent of that in the former ásafe havení of Srebrenica in Bosnia- Herzegovina, i. e. that the people living there have become isolated from the surrounding area because it is populated by a different ethnic group who would like to see the back of the surrounded minority?