European Union leaders have retreated from a plan to punish non-EU countries which fail to control human trafficking or refuse to take back rejected asylum-seekers. When the Seville summit publishes its conclusions today, the word "sanctions" will not appear and references to potential penalties will be watered down significantly. From Denis Staunton, in Seville
Spain, Germany and Britain insisted that the threat of sanctions was necessary to ensure that non-EU countries co-operated in the fight against illegal immigration.
But France and Sweden argued that penalising poor countries was unfair and counter-productive because increased poverty would produce more economic migrants.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said it was important to overhaul the Dublin Convention that regulates the repatriation of rejected asylum-seekers. But he said that sanct-ioning poor countries was not the best way to improve co-operation.
"The sanctions issue is not going to work very well. Trying to put sanctions on governments is not the easiest thing to do," he said.
The leaders agreed on most of the anti-immigration package proposed by the Spanish presidency, which includes better co-operation between border police and more effective controls on sea routes used by illegal immigrants.
The dispute centred on a proposal to link future development aid to co-operation on illegal immigration and a threat to suspend trade and association agreements with countries which failed to co-operate.
The Commission president, Mr Romano Prodi, told the leaders that illegal immigration was a burning issue in Europe and he backed a tough approach to countries which failed to co-operate with the EU. "Our partners must understand that there has been a qualitative upgrading of the importance we attach to the migration component of our relations. We have no reason to believe that this message will not be understood and acted upon. But if for any reason our expectations are disappointed, it would be a mistake to take for granted that the overall relationship and the instruments that go with it will be unaffected."
German chancellor Mr Gerhard Schröder said that the EU should improve co-operation with illegal immigrants' countries of origin. But if no co-operation was forthcoming, the EU had a right to respond, including with penalties.
British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair said that the proposal was less about punishing poor countries than establishing a sense of "co-responsibility".
But Sweden's Prime Minister, Mr Goran Persson, repeated his objection to using development aid as a potential sanction. He said that humanity and respect for human rights should underpin the EU's asylum and immigration policies. President Jacques Chirac of France also rejected any linkage between illegal immigration and development aid.