Heidi Hautala, Hélène Flautre and Judith Sargentini have tabled an oral question to the Council on the renewal of EU readmission policy. [:]The Greens wish the item to be debated in the June plenary session before the Council is going to adopt conclusions on the matter.
The question:
In the Stockholm Programme, the Council invited the Commission to present an evaluation of EU readmission agreements and ongoing negotiations. The Commission presented on the 23rd of February a Communication on the evaluation and future strategy for EU readmission agreements. Council conclusions on this communication are to be adopted at the Council meeting in June.The readmission agreements have been criticized, especially by the civil society, human rights practitioners and the European Parliament, of not respecting the human rights of the readmitted persons. The principle of the non-refoulement is a cornerstone of international human rights law and must be respected. However, this norm has not been fully respected by the EU Member States during the years since the 9/11 attack in 2001. As the Commission has pointed out, comprehensive data on readmissions is not available and there is no mechanism to monitor what happens to persons after their readmission is completed.
It seems that there is a need to review the whole EU readmission policy in order to correct its flaws.
-Is the Council going to present a revised readmission policy in June?
-Is the Council going to follow the Commission’s recommendations 10 – 15 to enhance human rights guarantees in readmission agreements, especially on monitoring the situation of persons readmitted and on a suspension clause in the case of violation of fundamental rights?
-Will the Council require that more statistics and data, especially about the asylum application process of a readmitted person, will be gathered in order to provide a useful basis to assess the implementation of the readmission agreements?
-Is the Council going to ensure that the readmission policy is transparent and that the public has access to the bilateral implementation protocols?
-How will the Council react to the other recommendations made by the Commission, especially on evaluating the concrete need for third country national clauses?
