Fortress Europe and the Nice Treaty

Wednesday October 16, 2002 10:17

by Libertarians against Nice

Successive agreements, treaties and 'action plans' have led to the creation of Fortress Europe, causing thousands of deaths of refugees and asylum seekers and as well as criminalising and marginalising immigrants within the EU.

Press Release - Oct/16/2002
Libertarians against Nice

Fortress Europe and the Nice Treaty

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Over the last 15 years or so EU states have been gradually increasing cooperation and attempting to establish common policy and law on areas related to immigration and asylum. Successive agreements, treaties and 'action plans' have led to the creation of Fortress Europe, causing thousands of deaths of refugees and asylum seekers and as well as criminalising and marginalising immigrants within the EU.

One such EU policy is the containment of refugees and migrants within their home regions, regardless of the human cost. One of the strategies to achieve this has been to target migrants' country of origin and force their governments to cooperate in "migrant management". In the recent EU summit in Seville it was agreed that in future all EU agreements with non-EU states are to: "include a clause on joint management of migration flows and on compulsory readmission in the event of illegal immigration" (para.33).. "In the event" that there is an: "unjustified lack of cooperation" in joint management of migration flows, the EU may apply direct pressure through agreements on trade, aid and assistance coupled with political and diplomatic sanctions.

Deirdre Hogan of Libertarians Against Nice said
"Thousands of people have died so far trying to enter Fortress Europe. According to UNITED, a European anti-racist network, more than 2000 refugees and migrants have died in and around Europe since 1993 as a result of European refugee policies. Details of the 2042 cases are available from their website (http://www.united.non-profit.nl/pages/List.htm).

One of the provisions which will change from unanimity to qualified-majority voting, in the Nice treaty and which is relevant to Fortress Europe is the provision on the "economic, financial and technical cooperation with third countries" (Article 181a). If the Nice treaty is passed, decisions to, for example, impose sanctions on third world countries if they refused to cooperate with "migrant management", would have to be accepted by all member states if the European Council agreed on it."

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More information on the Nice and Fortress Europe at
http://struggle.ws/ireland/nice/analysis/fortress.html

Libertarians against Nice
http://more.at/stopnice