Europees akkoord over gezamenlijk asiel- en migratiebeleid 2005-2010 (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After months of negotiation, EU leaders on Friday agreed a new five-year programme for closer co-operation in asylum and migration policy.

Under the so-called Hague Programme, a common asylum policy is foreseen by 2010.

From next year, all decisions in this area, which includes border controls, illegal immigration and asylum, will be taken by majority voting.

Legal immigration will remain as an exception to this rule.

"[The] Europe of tomorrow will be a Europe without internal frontiers ... therefore we must work more intensely on asylum", said Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announcing the agreement (5 November).

Majority voting in the area of legal immigration, such as granting visas to students, will not start until the new EU Constitution comes into place - where it is foreseen anyway - following strong opposition by Germany, Austria, Estonia and Slovakia.

Another one of the aims of the programme is to have an EU body to deal with asylum and immigration by 2010.

One of the issues where there is still no agreement is where to locate the EU borders agency - supposed to start work in May next year.

Several countries - including Poland, Hungary and Estonia - have applied to have the agency which would be in charge of managing the EU's external borders.

Until the issue is resolved the agency will be housed in Brussels, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said on Friday.

With its long borders to the East, and with immigration such a heated topic in the EU, guarding the EU borders is of major political importance - however, member states are reluctant to invest in a purely communitarian body.

Commenting on the proposal Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel said there will be "neither a European army, nor a European police nor a central EU border body" taking over decisions from national bodies.

Border protection will remain the "sovereign excercise of states".

When the new European Commission comes into office it will have a major role in driving forward progress in the justice, freedom and security area - as it has been tasked to make yearly reports evaluating progress made.

The conclusions at the end of the two-day summit in Brussels said EU security has acquired a new urgency, especially since the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001 and in Madrid in March of this year.

"The citizens of Europe rightly expect the EU, while guaranteeing respect for fundamental freedoms and rights, to take a more effective, joint approach to cross-border problems such as illegal migration and trafficking in and smuggling of human beings, as well as to terrorism and organised crime", says the statement.