The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers ratified last Tuesday the protocol between Spain and Georgia to promote the return of illegal residents, an instrument of international legal cooperation to combat illegal immigration that was signed last February 16 in Tbilisi by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gómez, and his Georgian counterpart, Vakhtang Gomelauri.
Specifically, the Council of Ministers approved the agreement authorizing the expression of Spain’s consent to be bound by the Protocol between the Kingdom of Spain and Georgia on the implementation of the Agreement between the European Union and Georgia on the readmission of illegal residents.
Negotiations for the subscription of this implementing Protocol began in 2013 at the initiative of Georgia. After successive exchanges of comments, which lasted until 2017, the negotiations came to a standstill and were recently resumed again, until a final agreement on the wording of the text was reached. The legal basis is to be found in the agreement between the European Union and Georgia on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation, made in Brussels on November 22, 2010.
After its authorization by the Council of Ministers, the Protocol was signed last February 16 in Tbilisi by Grande-Marlaska Gómez and Gomelauri during a working visit of the Minister, in which he thanked the efforts made from Georgia to favor the return of Georgian citizens in an irregular situation.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the Protocol will make it possible to establish an instrument of international legal cooperation in order to combat illegal immigration more effectively and to implement, on the basis of reciprocity, rapid and effective procedures for the identification and safe and orderly return of persons who do not or no longer meet the conditions for entry, stay or residence in the territory of Georgia or any of the Member States of the European Union.
The text regulates and determines the competent authorities of both parties on such issues as border crossing points, the procedure of readmission application and reply, additional documents and other means of determining nationality, issuance of travel documents, transfer procedures and the case of readmission in error, as well as the transit procedure, conditions of escorted returns, bearing of costs arising from readmission and working language.
Although the provision of the State’s consent to be bound by this agreement does not require the prior authorization of the Cortes Generales, the Council of Ministers, in accordance with Article 94.2 of the Constitution, has sent the text to the Congress of Deputies and the Senate for information purposes.
