Jump to content

The Cameron "Emergency Brake"


threegee

Recommended Posts

Quote

Telegraph: Matthew Holehouse, our Brussels correspondent, reports

The European Court of Justice has dealt a blow to David Cameron on the morning of his renegotiation, as its top legal adviser said that France was wrong to jail a woman attempting to get into Britain on someone else's passport.

France had no right under EU rules to detain an African woman who was caught at Calais attempting to reach Britain on false papers.

The case has potentially significant implications for how French and British police guard Calais - and critics will argue the opinion will encourage further attempts to reach Britain illegally.

Sélina Affum, a Ghanaian woman, was stopped by French police at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel while on a coach going from Ghent in Belgium to London. She was carrying a Belgian passport with the name and photograph of someone else, and had no other travel documents.

She was placed in police custody on grounds of illegal entry into French territory, and put in detention while they waited to readmit her to Belgium.

But in a preliminary opinion - which is not binding on the court but gives a good indication of the final verdict - the Advocate General Szpunar said France had no right to detain her under EU rules.

He noted she was not stopped when attempting to illegally enter the Schengen zone, but leave it.

As such, she fell under an EU directive on the imprisonment of illegal migrants that allows detention in two cases: if the person has been subject to a deportation order and refused to go, continuing to stay illegally in a country; or if they have already been deported, and attempted to illegally re-enter the country in breach of an entry ban.

Affum met neither criteria, Szpunar said. As such, France was wrong to jail her.

"Since the directive is applicable and the foreign national is not covered by either of the two situations in which her imprisonment is possible (which is the case here, since Ms Affum had not been the subject of a return procedure and did not re-enter French territory in breach of an entry ban), the Advocate General concludes that a third-country national such as Ms Allum cannot be imprisoned solely on the basis that she is illegally in the territory of a Member State," the Court said in a statement.

 

So, once again the European Court overrules inter-government agreements.  And here, not being in Schengen is acting against our interests rather than providing us with the alleged cushion.

Zero hope then for EUroCam being allowed to hang onto any minor crumbs now thrown to him by other EU governments!  But of course he knows that, and once the referendum is out of the way he can resume expressing outrage and surprise before caving in completely.  We've been here before over the "surprise" £1.7bn demand from Brussels, and all the false outrage and posturing before paying the bill in a more convoluted way.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create a free account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


×
×
  • Create New...