Bilateral readmission agreement between a Member State of the European Union and a third country

The European Parliament rejected the report by Mrs Claudia ROTH (V, D) on a bilateral readmission agreement between a Member State of the European Union and a third country by 159 votes to 153 with 8 abstentions. Mr Georges BERTHU (EDN, F) welcomed the rejection of this report on behalf of his group, considering that the grounds on which the ROTH report had called on the Council to review its text to be open to dispute. First, he considered that Article K.6 only made provision for general consultation on the "main aspects of the activity" of the presidency and not for consultation on specific texts. There were substantive reasons behind his group's unwillingness to endorse Mrs ROTH's report. Insofar as these agreements refer by definition to people which the state wishes to deport, it seemed absurd to oppose them because they "opened the door to deportation against the will of the people concerned". In conclusion, the EDN rejected the ROTH report because it was opposed to the very principle of readmission agreements on spurious legal grounds.