19 June 2002
Prime Minister Blair:
Good Afternoon everyone. Thank you for attending this short press conference.
First of all can I welcome President Aznar here and say how delighted we are to see him here in his capacity as President of the European Union, and really our agenda has been a very obvious one, we have discussed the issues of asylum and immigration and what common action Europe can take.
Obviously we discussed too the issues of Council reform, enlargement and the other associated issues with the Seville Summit. And in exactly the way that I would expect and anticipate, it has been a very excellently prepared Summit and I am sure it will go very well under the chairmanship of President Aznar and I look forward to seeing him in Seville on Friday.
Prime Minister Aznar:
Thank you very much Tony, good afternoon everybody. This will be brief because we still have one visit left on the tour of capitals, to Paris. And can I say thank you very much, Tony Blair, for your hospitality, thank you also for your constant support and the tremendous amount of work that we have done together with a view to our Presidency.
We have had a tremendous opportunity to move forward very clearly on the whole Barcelona issue of the economic and social reforms with a view to the Seville Summit and we have reached full agreement on the basic issues that will be dealt with at Seville, namely immigration and asylum and the fight against criminal organisations that traffic in human beings and improved control of the EU’s external borders and more efficient international cooperation in the whole question of immigration.
We also share fully the principles concerning the reform of the Council, namely simplifying our work and simplifying the decision-making procedure in Council. We have also taken the necessary steps with a view to reaching agreement on the decisions needed for enlargement, decisions that will have to be taken at the European Council in Copenhagen.
So these and other issues will form the core if you like at what will be decided at Seville, namely immigration, reform of the Council, enlargement. And I do agree with Tony Blair that there is a basic consensus among the 15 in terms of the vast majority of issues that will be decided at Seville.
We have a programme set up with a timetable for Seville, bearing in mind of course that at 8.30 on Friday England will be playing Brazil - good luck by the way - and at 1.30 in Seville it will be Germany against the US, and the next day it will be Spain against South Korea. But nonetheless I think we will be able to divide our time up in harmony. But thank you again, Tony, for your support and for your cooperation.
Prime Minister Blair:
Thank you Jose Maria and good luck to you.
Question and Answer session
Question:
Prime Minister, can I ask you whether you think it was right for Cherie to talk about the lack of hope of suicide bombers without talking about all those Israelis who died today?
Prime Minister Blair:
First of all, I hope that no-one mis-describes her sentiments, or mine, or anyone else’s. Everybody in this situation feels nothing but the deepest sympathy for the people that have lost their lives in the latest terrorist attack.
Terrorism offers absolutely no future, no way out of this process whatever, but of course it is true that we need to make sure that there is hope for the future, and the hope lies in the political process taking the place of the extremists, the terrorists, the suicide bombers, and I am quite sure that is what Cherie was saying, it is what everyone who has looked at this problem knows is the case.
Question:
This is a question for the two Prime Ministers. Do you think that the reluctance of countries such as Sweden, France and Luxembourg in terms of this proposal to penalise countries that don’t cooperate efficiently in the fight against illegal immigration might in some way lower expectations in terms of solving that issue?
Prime Minister Aznar:
Can I begin by saying that I think we will definitely have a very good agreement in Seville with regard to asylum and immigration policy. This is a major priority for us as the fight against terrorism, reforms for improved economic employment opportunities, this is one of our priorities and I do think we will reach an agreement.
Secondly, there already exists basic agreement on the package of measures that are going to be put forward to Seville. And thirdly, we are discussing the drafting of the wording, but there is no discussion whatsoever in terms of the substance of that package.
And as of now, the fight against illegal immigration will be very much part and parcel of the content of the EU’s international cooperation with third countries, it will form part and parcel, just as the fight against terrorism and respect for human rights also form part. And in terms of cooperation with the countries from which the illegal immigrants are coming, we do hope that they do comply with their obligations.
Prime Minister Blair:
I agree entirely with what the President has just said. I have no doubt at all we will reach agreement on a package of measures that I think everyone understands now is extremely important to tackle the problems of illegal immigration and asylum.
And it is not a question of going out specifically to penalise countries, but it is a question of us saying look we should use the whole of our relationship with those countries, as the European Union, to make sure that we get the maximum cooperation to deal with the problems of illegal immigration and the problems arising from large numbers of asylum seekers who are in fact migrants seeking work.
And we should never forget that many of the people who are engaged in this trade are engaged in the illegal trafficking of people, are linked to organised crime, and therefore it is entirely right that the European Union work with other countries to make sure that we bear down on the problem.
Question:
The question concerns the liberalising economic reforms that your government is implementing, do you think that there is a need to go further and introduce reforms of the type that the Spanish government has just introduced, ie with regard to unemployment benefit etc, do you agree with what Spain has done and do you think that it should be extended to the rest of the European Union, and lastly what do you think of the reaction of the trade unions in Spain to those reforms?
Prime Minister Blair:
I think I am going to pass on that question, partly because I am not qualified and partly because I retain some residual powers of diplomacy.
Question:
On the Gibraltar question, have you made any progress on that at all, given your aborted last meeting here, and also given, I think I am correct in saying that the disagreement between Britain and Spain on Gibraltar exacerbates the problem of illegal immigration from North Africa?
Prime Minister Blair:
Look, it is an ongoing process of discussion. The Foreign Ministers are meeting regularly on it, but today frankly our conversation obviously was concentrated on the Seville Summit.
Prime Minister Aznar:
It is not Gibraltar’s turn today.
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