The European Union's executive arm warned Monday that plans by Britain's opposition Conservative Party to impose quotas for asylum seekers would be illegal under EU law. A spokesman for EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini said the plan, outlined Sunday as part of the Conservatives' campaign for a general election expected in May, would run counter to the 1951 UN convention on refugees.
Any asylum law of an EU member state "will need to be in full accordance with that refugee convention", spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing told reporters.
The 1951 convention, which is in force in all EU nations, obliges signatories to accept legitimate asylum seekers. Tory leader Michael Howard said that if elected, his party would instead impose quotas on asylum seekers.
Roscam Abbing noted that the European Commission, as guardian of EU law, monitors legislation enacted in member states in this area.
If the legislation is found to flout EU law, the commission can issue a formal warning to the country concerned.
"If those infringements have not been addressed, they will eventually go to the (EU) court," Roscam Abbing said.
Howard was accused in liberal sections of the British press Monday of pandering to racism with his new policy, an attempt by the Conservatives to turn the heat on Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party ahead of the polls.