Philip Bradbourn is the Senior Vice-Chairman of the Justice & Home Affairs Committee. As part of that committee he has to deal with issue of a proposed Common Asylum Policy across the EU.

The Background

The European Commission has proposed a common asylum policy across the EU. This would create a single procedure for dealing with asylum applications and protection of asylum seekers in all EU Member States. Where a country such as Malta receives huge numbers of asylum seekers from Africa, all the other EU Member States would be obliged to take their share.

The Conservative View

It is our policy that each Member State should have the right to protect their own borders. Different regions of the EU have different asylum concerns so' one size fits all' rules for Southern Europe may not be suitable for Eastern Europe. A common policy seeking to harmonise the rules across Europe would result in an unworkable system regardless of whether we agree with the principle (which we do not!).

What should we do?

We believe that asylum & immigration issues should be dealt with by tighter border controls and using intergovernmental co-operation. This would result in effective policies without surrendering our sovereign right to set our own immigration rules to the European Commission.