EU leaders to sign asylum deal

Europe’s leaders will tomorrow seal a deal to speed up the creation of a common asylum and immigration system across the EU.

A compromise agreement at a summit in Seville will set new targets for curbing illegal immigration and introducing EU-wide arrangements for the return of rejected asylum seekers to their countries of origin.

The European Commission hopes the package of measures will be up and running by the end of next year.

And EU leaders themselves know they must follow their summit promises with concrete results soon - or face the risk of more public support swinging towards the far right in Europe.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Spanish counterpart Jose Maria Aznar, agreed to water down their plans for sanctions against developing countries which do not co-operate in the new fight against illegal immigration.

But the summit conclusions will make it clear that levels of EU cash aid to developing countries will be linked to their efforts to help the campaign.

On the first summit day, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw explained there was no question of cutting aid to the poor. But there would be extra cash for those countries which agreed to the return of illegal immigrants turned back by EU member states and which help improve their national economic and social conditions to discourage the exodus in the first place.

The summit accord acknowledges that progress has been too slow since the EU leaders first pledged to tackle immigration in 1999. It calls for stricter controls at the EU’s external borders, which are soon to move when 10 central and Eastern European countries plus Malta and Cyprus become member states in 2004.

The summit conclusions will reaffirm that the timetable for enlargement remains on course, despite

last minute negotiating complications over farming subsidies for the newcomers and other benefits of EU membership.

An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern highlighted another enlargement stumbling block at the summit -

Ireland’s rejection of a new EU treaty last year.

The treaty sets out major changes in the way the EU works - changes which are vital if an expanded EU of 25 nations is to function efficiently.

Mr Ahern confirmed that a new referendum on the treaty would be held in Ireland in late October or early November.

And he issued a plea to Irish voters to approve the deal, or risk EU paralysis until the legal hurdle can be overcome.

He said he would be campaigning vigorously for the next few months to convince the electorate that the new treaty was in the interests of Ireland and the whole EU.

His campaign was helped on the first day of the summit by a formal declaration from all EU leaders that Ireland’s military neutrality will remain unaffected by the new treaty arrangements. Mr Ahern said he hoped that confirmation would reassure voters who may have rejected the treaty in last year’s referendum for fear of compromising Ireland’s position.

The new pledge on asylum and immigration is the key result from the summit.

But EU leaders also agreed to streamline EU working methods even further to answer public criticism and, in the words of European Commission President Romano Prodi to avoid ‘‘paralysis’’.

The final summit declaration will also express concern at the rising spiral of violence in the Middle East and call for fresh efforts to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.