EU leaders accused of aiding far right over immigration

European Union leaders, including Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, have been accused of demonising foreigners and justifying the arguments of the far right by putting immigration at the heart of next week's EU summit.

Justice and interior ministers meet in Luxembourg today to try to prepare the ground for next week's meeting of EU heads of government in Seville, at which immigration will be top of the agenda.

After the election successes of the far right in France and the Netherlands, Mr Blair and Mr Aznar have called for an injection of momentum behind EU moves to clamp down on bogus asylum-seekers.

But yesterday pressure groups and opposition politicians accused Europe's politicians of pandering to the agenda of the right in a desperate effort to undercut support for the extremists.

Already the new, centre-right government in Denmark has, with the support of the far-right Danish People's Party, toughened its restrictions on those claiming asylum. The parties expected to make up the next Dutch government, which include supporters of the murdered anti-immigration campaigner Pim Fortuyn, have said they intend to do likewise.

Today's meeting in Luxembourg will discuss progress on combating illegal immigration at sea, a common visa policy and more co-ordination in managing external borders – although moves to create an EU frontier guard are opposed by several countries including Britain.

Other issues include co-operation with immigrants' home countries to make it easier to send them back and whether to bring into EU law the Dublin Convention. Giving this treaty new legal force would allow governments to deport asylum-seekers to the first EU country in which they arrived.

Yesterday, Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, gave a warning over the rhetoric on illegal immigration, telling MEPs in Strasbourg: "We cannot allow the question of security to take a back seat. Nor can we go back and retrench on nationalistic positions." Others were more outspoken. Sarah Ludford, European Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on justice and home affairs, criticised Mr Blair, Mr Aznar and the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlucsoni, arguing: "The reality is that by their abusive hysteria about illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers they demonise foreigners and generate more race tensions and suspicions."

One of the central problems for EU leaders is that they outlined plans for an EU framework to deal with asylum and immigration in October 1999. Although proposals for a common asylum system have been drafted by the European Commission, member states have been slow to agree them.

A report from Amnesty International attacked suggestions floated by Downing Street for combating illegal immigration. In a letter to the EU heads of government, the group said: "Talk of sending warships into the Mediterranean, and threats of cutting aid to countries found unco-operative in taking people back – unrealistic or unlawful as such moves may be – set a climate in which people's fears are confirmed."

Amnesty says the number of refugees seeking asylum in the EU has dropped to 384,530 in 2001 from 675,460 in 1992.