Jul 7, 2008, 15:11 GMT
Cannes, France - Europe should take complete control of migration into and out of the continent, working with the rest of the world to end illegal migration and manage legal flows, EU justice ministers said Monday at the opening of an informal meeting.
'We are not turning Europe into a bunker, but we are steering migrant flows in the world,' German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said ahead of talks with EU counterparts in the southern French beach resort of Cannes.
'We cannot leave all these questions of migrant flows in disorder, we have to organize (them),' EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.
The informal meeting, a regular feature of EU politics, is aimed at getting ministers to agree on the broad outline of policies, so that they will find it easier to agree on the technical details at future, formal meetings.
Monday's talks were set to be dominated by a proposal from the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, to create a 'pact on immigration and asylum' between the EU's 27 member states.
The pact, which would not be legally binding but would carry political weight, asks EU member states to strengthen the fight against illegal immigration, to crack down on the employers of illegal migrants and to live up to their responsibility to expel illegal residents from their territory.
'Mastering migrant flows. Making integration easier. Promoting development in solidarity with countries of origin. Promoting national identity,' a pamphlet published for the meeting said.
At the same time, the pact urges EU members to put in place targeted immigration policies which would attract highly-qualified foreigners, in particular, into Europe.
And it calls on the EU to work closely with countries of origin and transit, supporting development on their territories and making it easier for immigrants to send money home as a way of making it more attractive for future potential migrants to stay at home.
However, a draft of the pact agreed immediately before the meeting tones down considerably the strong language used in the initial text.
Where the first draft listed strengthened border control as its top priority, that was relegated to number three in later versions, being supplanted by the question of boosting legal migration.
The first draft also prioritized 'organizing the effective removal of irregular residents from the EU' - an emphasis which chimes in with the policy of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has set annual quotas for expelling illegal immigrants.
But the later text used a much softer tone, calling for a general 'fight against illegal immigration, especially assuring the return of foreigners who are in an irregular situation to their country of origin or a transit country.'
The first draft of the pact also stated categorically that 'massive and collective legalizations produce a major pull effect' and that member states 'agree to give them up.'
This was seen as a direct criticism of Spain, which carried out just such a mass amnesty in 2005.
But the latest draft simply calls on member states to limit their legalizations to a case-by-case system in the future.
The result is seen as a victory for Spain, which has fought hard to avoid any implied criticism of its earlier policies. On Monday morning Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said he was very happy with the new draft, which he saw as supporting his country's policies.
While that compromise paves the way for broad EU acceptance of the text at a summit in October, the news on the domestic front was less good for the French government in its immigration plans.
As the meeting opened, the French press reported that a commission of French experts formed by Sarkozy to discuss his migration policies had roundly criticized key points.
Binding immigration quotas would be 'unrealistic and pointless,' and the national authorities have 'no discretionary power to determine the flow' of migrants into France, especially on family grounds, left-wing daily La Liberation quoted the report.
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