The European Union will try to agree by April on a list of countries which can be deemed safe enough that asylum requests from most of their citizens can be dismissed as unwarranted, the EU Presidency said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The European Union tried and failed in 2004 to adopt such a list to accompany its fledgling cooperation on asylum. The EU executive came forward on Tuesday with a draft proposal with 11 potential safe countries -- Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Mauritius, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay and Tanzania -- an EU diplomat said. The EU executive will come up with a more detailed proposal by March 8. after further consultations with EU countries, EU Justice and Interior Commissioner Franco Frattini told journalists after a meeting of EU interior ministers.
