Standardizing (Discriminatory) Immigrant Policies in Europe

According to an article in the Washington Post, the European Parliament is standardizing a currently disparate set of immigration policies in Europe.  The stated goal was to find a compromise between those countries with more liberal immigration policies and those with harsh policies--for instance, Britain may detain immigrants indefinitely prior to their involuntary deportation.  The problem is that there are very few countries in Europe that actually have liberal immigration policies.  So, expectedly, the Parliament played to the lowest common denominator, and now its new directive has actually standardized discriminatory immigration policies.  Fantabulous.  

Among the new policies are 18-month detentions before deportation, and a nifty new power to declare a state of emergency and essentially ignore all these new standards if the conveniently vague situation should occur that "an exceptionally large number" of immigrants places "an unforeseen heavy burden" on a country.  Meanwhile all the Members are patting themselves on the back for working toward freedom and civil rights.  Delightful.

The very best part, though, is that Britain, which holds immigrant detainees indefinitely, and Ireland, who sends a good portion of its immigrant detainees to Britain, opted out of the directive completely.  Yippie Hurray.