Numerous national sensitivities have stalled efforts to harmonise EU procedures for immigrants and asylum-seekers, writes Denis Staunton from Brussels. Ireland's chances of overcoming them are slim.
It is five years since EU leaders agreed to establish a common policy on asylum and immigration and Ireland's will be the seventh EU presidency to attempt to put the plan into action.
The Government is aware, however, that its chances of success are modest because there are few policy areas that touch on so many sensitive national issues, including border controls, employment, race relations and even national security.
An estimated half-a-million illegal immigrants enter the EU each year, along with more than 600,000 immigrants who enter legally.
At a summit in the Finnish town of Tampere in October 1999, EU leaders agree to try to manage these migration flows by working with countries of origin, developing a common asylum system and improving co-operation between national immigration authorities.
In the absence of common rules, EU countries have sought to out-do one another in making themselves unattractive to illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers.
The number of asylum-seekers in Germany, for example, peaked at around 500,000 during the war in Yugoslavia in the early 1990s but fell to about 100,000 10 years later. Among the factors that contributed to this drop was the introduction of fines for any airline carrying passengers to Germany without a valid visa.
Other countries have sought to discourage asylum-seekers by giving them food vouchers rather than cash allowances or housing them in enclosed transit centres.
Any common EU policy will leave the decision on whether to grant asylum to each member-state but a proposed directive would harmonise qualifications and procedures to discourage asylum-seekers from "shopping around" within the EU.
Another proposal would set out minimum standards for the treatment of asylum seekers, from rights to information on immigration procedures to access to healthcare.
The EU summit in December agreed that a European Agency for the management of common borders should become operational by January 1st, 2005. The agency would coordinate the monitoring of land, air and sea borders between member-states but would have no policy-making role or law enforcement powers.
It is designed primarily to help member-states train their national border guards but will also coordinate EU-wide co-operation to repatriate people living illegally in the EU.
The presidency will also seek to speed up the introduction of a visa information system that would allow national authorities to share passport and visa information, including photographs and biometric data such as fingerprints, iris scans and facial recognition.
Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have criticised the direction of EU asylum and immigration policy as a plan to hinder refugees from claiming asylum status anywhere in Europe. The Government insists that all EU policies are consistent with the Geneva Convention, which guarantees sanctuary to those fleeing persecution.
Like the Italian presidency, Ireland's will also focus on measures to co-ordinate EU policy on legal immigration.
The member-states are currently considering two draft directives on the conditions of entry and residence for non-EU nationals who want to study or work in the EU.
They would establish a uniform application procedure and a common legal status for those immigrants who are admitted.
National authorities would continue to decide how many and which immigrants to admit, mainly by identifying the sectors where there are shortages and selecting the relevant people.
Many member-states have long opposed the introduction of immigration quotas as discriminatory and ineffective in fighting illegal immigration.
However, justice and home affairs ministers asked the Commission to produce a study on how quotas could better regulate the influx of legal immigrants.
These quotas would be indicative targets saying how many people are needed in certain work sectors and would not be linked to nationalities. Apart from regulating migration flows, the EU is committed to improving the integration of immigrants by helping them with language skills and preparing them for the employment market.