EU agrees deal with US on accepting ex-Guantanamo detainees
(LUXEMBOURG) - EU foreign ministers on Monday endorsed a deal with the United States on transferring Guantanamo "war on terror" inmates to Europe.
The deal stresses that the decision to accept any inmate was one for individual European governments.
The United States does not commit itself to accepting inmates from the camp at the Guantanamo Bay navy base in Cuba. It said only "that the primary responsibility for closing Guantanamo and finding residence for former detainees rests with the United States."
Some EU nations have questioned Washington's policy of seeking new homes for inmates who cannot return to their country of origin while not promising to take any in itself.
An earlier version of the text, supported in particular by Austria and Germany -- included a line saying "the United States recognises its responsibility to accept certain former detainees."
"It's a compromise," one European diplomat said last week. "The question of the United States receiving some of the detainees is a very sensitive point right now."
The joint text speaks of the wish to "help the US turn the page" on the Guantanamo affair, pointing out that "certain member states of the European Union have expressed their readiness to assist with the reception of certain former Guantanamo detainees, on a case-by-case basis."
Seven countries have said they may be willing to accept former detainees: Belgium, Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The EU-US agreement stops short of insisting that Washington help finance resettlement operations, noting only that "the United States will consider contributing to the costs incurred by EU member states."
US President Barack Obama has vowed to shut down Guantanamo, which has faced strong condemnation from since President George W. Bush set it up after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The prospect of transferring the remaining 240 inmates at Guantanamo to top security jails in the United States remains deeply unpopular in the US Congress.
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