Third-country nationals: joint flights for removals of illegal emigrants. Initiative Italy

The Council's request to include the Italian initiative on the organisation of joint flights for

removals of third country nationals who are the subjects of individual removal orders in the April 2004 Plenary Session as a matter of urgency has been rejected by the European Parliament. Therefore, the initiative has been withdrawn.

To recall, the Parliament already rejected this initiative during its March plenary session. The Parliament viewed collective returns as a "deplorable practice", which should be resorted to only by way of exception. The report was also critical of the fact that the 'common guidelines' on the state of health of returnees, a code of conduct applicable to escorts and the use of coercive measures were merely listed in an annex to the proposal - which was in no way binding - rather than in the proposal itself.