EU executives outline joint EU Immigration Policy Needs

12 June 2008

EU member states need to agree better integration policies for migrants, set up joint visa centres abroad and identify labour needs, the bloc's executive will say on Tuesday in proposals for a common migration policy. Immigration is a sensitive issue in the 27-nation European Union, where pressure to admit more migrants to fill jobs vacated by an ageing population clashes with voters' fears of the effects of increased immigration.

"[Migration] has an important role to play in increasing the EU's growth potential, contributing to the prosperity of many member states by reducing labour market shortages," the European Commission is to say, according to a draft obtained by Reuters. "This economic potential can only be realised if integration into the host country labour market is successful."

While some EU nations applauded the proposal, some member states, including Germany and Austria, resisted calls for an EU-wide immigration policy, stating that they want to maintain control over their own labor markets. However, the draft text says that national immigration policies in EU states affect all other members. The European Commission feels that it's best to have a common immigration policy because of this.

"No member state can effectively control or deal with all aspects of immigration on their own", the draft text said, since national policies affect the rest of the bloc. However, a number of EU states, led by Germany, have so far resisted agreeing common steps on legal migration to preserve national control over the labour market.

The Commission suggested each EU state establish "migration profiles" that give an overview of the labour market and of existing immigrants and identifies additional needs. It also calls for better cooperation with countries of origin of migrants and proposes to set up abroad consular centres common to all EU states.

An EU official said more detailed ideas in the document for how to improve integration were likely to be omitted from the final version, which would stop short of endorsing a French idea for an integration contract signed by migrants. Paris is drafting an EU migration pact it hopes the bloc's leaders will adopt in October. An early version included the idea of asking migrants to learn the language and values of the country they live in.

In October of 2007, then European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini submitted a proposal for an EU "blue card", which would allow third-country nationals to live and work anywhere in the EU for an initial period of two years. The intention is, it will be possible to renew the visa at a later date.