EU Asylum Policy Passed on to Summit

EU ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday (Oct.25) broadly agreed to a wide-ranging five-year program of immigration and asylum measures, but failed to settle all disputes. The issues will now be moved on to the table of EU heads of states, who will meet for a summit in Brussels on November 5 to sign the proposals included in the so-called "Hague Program," a five-year plan in continuation of the earlier plan adopted at the Tampere European Council in 1999. The plan aims to have in place a common EU asylum system in 2010, but the ministers on Monday failed to agree that asylum and immigration decisions should be taken by qualified majority voting and in co-decision with the European Parliament as of April 1, 2005. (EUobserver.com)