Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Gibraltar/PM Aznar/Asylum & Immigration, Afghanistan/Brigadier Lane and Health/Aids.
Gibraltar/PM Aznar/Asylum & Immigration
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the Prime Minister had met Prime Minister Aznar of Spain today. They had had good, positive discussions on Gibraltar which would continue with the two Foreign Ministers, Jack Straw and Josep Pique. The two Prime Ministers were expected to meet again prior to the Seville Summit in June, at the Summit itself and also at the G8 meeting in Canada at the end of the month.
Other issues which had been discussed today included the forthcoming Summit in terms of the need for Council reform and further progress on enlargement, the NATO Summit in Rome and the situation in the Middle East. A large part of the talks, however, had focussed on the issue of asylum and immigration following the Prime Minister’s letter last week to Mr Aznar in his role as EU President.
Those who had heard the translation of the Spanish Prime Minister’s comments in his press conference today would have been struck by how much he had reflected our Prime Minister’s concerns about the issue, calling for immediate action to toughen EU borders, a tougher attitude towards third countries which did not co-operate with the EU, consideration to be given to help those EU countries at the sharp end of the immigration issue, in addition to action against organised crime, particularly those involved in the people trafficking business.
Both Prime Ministers had indicated their belief that these measures should lead to a regained momentum on this issue at Seville.
Asked why we were reliving Tampere, the PMOS said that as he had pointed out this morning, the Prime Minister acknowledged the dangers of falling behind on the Tampere agenda. He believed Europe recognised the need to regain the momentum and he was therefore anxious to ensure that happened.
Clearly Seville was a good opportunity, particularly as Prime Minister Aznar shared his analysis both at a European and domestic level. Asked why Seville should be any more successful than Tampere, the PMOS said that EU member states were beginning to recognise that asylum and immigration were issues which their electorates wanted addressed. The Prime Minister believed we needed a managed approach to the problem.
Asked why Tampere had failed, the PMOS said that an action plan had been set out at Tampere in 1999 to deal with border controls, make agreements with third countries regarding returnees and give assistance to those states on the front line. However, the EU as a whole had not made as much progress as it could have done.
Asked what measures the UK had taken, the PMOS said that 700 new immigration officers were being trained to work on returns. We were also creating 1,500 new detention spaces (bringing the total to 4,000) to increase the rate of removals and bring down the time it took to do so. We were stepping up our efforts. We wanted other EU countries to do the same.
Asked to explain what role the UK could play in helping the EU tackle asylum and immigration, the PMOS pointed to the UK-Italian initiative set up in the Balkans last year where we and the Italians had sent immigration experts into regional capitals to share information and intelligence and target groups involved in people trafficking. So-called ‘uncontrolled arrivals’ in Sarajevo had been cut by 90% as a result of the initiative. That was just one example of how to spread best practice across the EU.
Asked whether a single EU ID card system would become essential in order to track people across the EU, the PMOS said that finger printing and identification was obviously an important part of any tracking system. He reminded journalists that discussions were continuing about setting up the Euro-DAC, a Europe-wide finger printing database.
Asked whether a common social security policy would be needed if Europe was to have a single approach to the issue of asylum and immigration, the PMOS said no. We were looking at common shared objectives to manage migration. That meant ensuring stronger border controls, common understandings with third countries and helping those countries at the sharp end.
While problems like Sangatte and Frethun had to be addressed by themselves, in the end they were only symptoms of a failure to address the problems further back down the line.
Asked to explain the suggestion of using the EU’s financial and economic clout against those countries which did not co-operate, the PMOS said that the EU had a number of different agreements with countries along its borders to give assistance in a variety of different ways, whether in terms of trade or specialised local assistance. If the EU was giving such assistance, it was only right to ask those countries to co-operate on issues such as migration and asylum.
Asked if he was referring countries like Turkey, the PMOS said he was not going to start drawing attention to individual countries. He was simply making the point that the EU could use the leverage it so clearly had to ensure that we had a managed process. Asked whether Spain had immigration problems with the Moroccan and Tunisians, the PMOS said that they did have a problem with illegal immigration, most recently with Romanians.
Asked where we were on Gibraltar, the PMOS said that we had always envisaged these negotiations would continue into early summer, i.e. end of June/beginning of July. Since Prime Minister Aznar had been scheduled to make a speech in Oxford today, it had made sense to stop by and meet the Prime Minister in Downing Street.
Mr Aznar was due to return for his pre-Summit meeting on the 18th. The two would then have ample opportunity to discuss the issue again at Seville and the G8. Contrary to the way some parts of the press had chosen to report this issue, today had never been planned as a make-or-break event.
Afghanistan/Brigadier Lane
Asked if the Prime Minister had known that Brigadier Lane was going to be replaced, the PMOS said that how the MoD managed its staff was entirely a matter for them. As he had explained this morning, the terms of Brigadier Lane’s tour of duty had been announced in a press release in February. In order to increase the pool for potential applicants for the job of Commander General of the Royal Marines, it had been decided that the job would be split between two people, Brigadier Lane and his successor, Brigadier Dutton.
Asked whether Geoff Hoon had known that Brigadier Lane was sharing his post with Brigadier Dutton and had chosen not to mention it during his Frost interview yesterday, the PMOS said that there had been an MoD briefing this afternoon at which the Chief-of-Defence Staff had outlined MoD policy in cases such as this, namely that Ministers were not consulted about one star appointments. The decision had been taken by the Chief-of-Defence Staff, which that was normal practice.
Health/Aids
Asked for the Prime Minister’s reaction to Sir Elton John’s criticism that the Government did not spend enough money on treating AIDS, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister respected enormously Sir Elton John’s commitment and all the work he had done to fight AIDS. However, far from cutting funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, care had increased year on year. Spending in the NHS between 1997 and 1998 had been £251.9m. In 1998/9, the figure had been £281.4m. In 1999/2000, it had been £206.4m. In 2000/1, the figure was £289.4m.
In 2001/2, it was £331m. In order to make sure that the aid reached the areas it needed to reach, HIV/AIDS was now part of NHS mainstream budgets. Primary Care Trusts had been given the task of working in consortia to ensure that specialised services were strategically planned and commissioned at an appropriate level and that targeted prevention work was maintained.
Asked why Sir Elton John had formed the impression that the Government was not doing enough, the PMOS said that journalists would need to ask Sir Elton.
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