Immigration tops EU summit agenda

Illiegal immigration has brought problems spots like Sangatte in northern France

SEVILLE, Spain -- Illegal immigration has emerged as one of the key issues as European Union leaders meet in Seville for a summit on Friday.

Human rights groups have attacked suggested new measures to curb immigration as moves towards an uncaring "Fortress Europe."

Disagreement is expected between Britain and France over the latter's opposition to a key proposal to impose sanctions against countries that fail to try to limit the flow of migrants.

CNN's Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman says the EU leaders will be principally working on immigration policy.

He says there are also some internal budget matters to be discussed -- as well as football with three nations represented at the summit still in the World Cup.

Sessions will begin two hours late thanks to Thursday's Spanish general strike to protest against jobless benefits changes. (Full story)

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This left most leaders opting to arrive on Friday morning and go straight into meetings, Goodman said, rather than meet up for a leisurely pre-summit dinner on Thursday night. (Strikers send message to EU leaders)

Goodman said the strike action was an embarrassment to conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who is hosting the summit at the end of Spain's tenure of the EU rotating presidency.

Despite the strike and the World Cup, EU leaders have a number of policy matters to discuss.

On immigration, EU nations have taken different stances on plans to withdraw aid from third countries that fail to cooperate in fighting people smugglers and refuse to take back their rejected nationals.

"We need to show at Seville that those of us around the EU Council table are not only aware of the practical concerns that our citizens in Europe have over asylum and immigration but can agree at least some common practical action to tackle them," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London.

"If we don't, then my fear is that we leave the field open to those who don't want to solve these problems but simply want to exploit them," he said.

Immigration emerged as a major issue as Germany passed into law its own controversial immigration bill on Friday. (Full story)

Public anxiety over the arrival of an estimated half a million illegal migrants in the 370-million-strong EU every year, in addition to about 680,000 legal immigrants, has seen gains by anti-immigration far-right parties in recent European elections.

A protester injured during clashes in Madrid

Blair and Aznar have led the charge for a tough-sounding policy including stricter border controls, better coordination on training, visa policy and information on illegal migrants.

But France continued to declare its opposition to one key Blair-Aznar proposal: the threat of sanctions against countries that do not comply with EU policy.

French President Jacques Chirac's spokeswoman said such a move, which could hit former French colonies such as Morocco, Algeria and West African states that are key sources of illegal migration, would be self-defeating.

"We think that to be effective, we should provide incentives and accompanying measures rather than punishment. It would be incomprehensible to establish conditionality between the fight against immigration and development aid," Chirac's spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna, told reporters.

"Exacerbating the economic situation of the country sanctioned would risk severely aggravating migratory flows and not diminish them. It would be particularly counterproductive."

The human rights organisation Amnesty International also attacked the planned EU moves as a negative step toward an heartless "Fortress Europe" under pressure from the far right.

"If the summit ties aid to immigration control, no amount of diplomatic language will be able to hide the fact that the EU has no compunction in enforcing its own interests over the backs of refugees and migrants," Dick Oosting, director of Amnesty's EU office in Brussels, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, finance ministers of the 15 EU states met in Madrid on Thursday evening to try to adopt economic policy guidelines delayed by France's general election, with Paris keen to avoid having to reaffirm a promise to balance its budget in 2004.

French officials said they were confident of reaching a deal, but it was not clear what formula would be found to reconcile President Chirac's election pledges of tax cuts and more spending on defence and security with the EU's Stability and Growth Pact, to which he swore allegiance in March.

EU leaders are also hoping for a breakthrough in their top-start common defence policy on Friday when they try to persuade Greece to drop its objections to arrangements with Turkey that would allow the EU assured access to NATO military assets for its own crisis management operations.

Athens balked six months ago at an agreement negotiated by British and U.S. diplomats to reassure Turkey that the EU rapid reaction force would not be used against its interests in its strategic domain, and offering it consultation and participation in EU operations.

Greece wants reciprocal guarantees that NATO will never be used against its security interests in the Aegean and Cyprus.

Diplomats told Reuters that there was cautious optimism that a deal could be reached Friday following intensive work involving the United States, Spain, Britain, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Greece and Turkey over the last week.

To mollify Greece, the EU would reassert the complete independence of its decision-making on defence. Practical arrangements would be settled in an exchange of letters between the secretaries-general of NATO and the EU, they said.