Strasbourg - The European Parliament approved yesterday controversial proposals to standardise asylum and immigration procedures across the 15-nation EU. The vote was approved by 298 members to 235.
It now falls on EU justice and home affairs ministers to adopt the measure - a process likely to be hastened in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the US.
Socialist, Liberal Democrat and Green deputies broadly backed the resolution, drafted by British Labour lawmaker, Mr Robert Evans, calling for standardised asylum policies throughout the bloc. But the centre-right European Peoples' Party (EPP), which includes the German Christian Democrats and British Conservatives, argued EU member states should only have to respect a minimum of common standards.