Deutsche Welle reports:

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer admitted on Monday that he failed to act more quickly to stop visa abuses which allowed tens of thousands of eastern Europeans to flood into Germany between 2000 and 2003.

[...] Current and former German ambassadors have told the investigation that they submitted alarming reports of the rush for applications as early as March 2000. The embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kiev for example issued 297,000 visas in 2001 alone, but the foreign ministry did not fully close the loophole until March 2003.

While Fischer accepted responsibility for the visa scandal, he refused to step down. Once one of Germany's most popular politicians, Fischer's intransigence may jeopardize the SPD-Green Coalition bid in an important upcoming North Rhine-Westphalia election.

German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder's ruling SPD Party will be seriously weakened should it lose control of the region. Many Germans are already anxious about an influx of Eastern Europeans following the latest round of EU enlargements.