France drops controversial immigrant integration plans[fr] 

In a bid to seal a deal on his "European Pact on immigration and asylum" at the next EU summit in October (EurActiv 11/04/08), French President Nicolas Sarkozy has succumbed to pressure from Spain and decided to drop the integration contract obligation from text, which French immigration minister Brice Hortefeux had presented in all European capitals in an unprecedented effort to win support for the legislation.

Potential for controversy 

The paragraph on the "integration contract" in the document initially presented to EU capitals by Hortefeux read: 

"The European Council recognises the interest of the integration contract for third-country nationals admitted for long-term stays and encourages the member states to propose such plans in a national context. This integration contract should be obligatory. It will include the obligation to learn the national language, national identities and European values, such as the respect of the physical integrity of others, the equality of men and women, tolerance, the obligation of school and the obligation to educate children." 

But the text raised eyebrows in several countries, which saw in it more potential for controversy and discrimination than a means of actually contributing to the better integration of immigrants. Spain led the fight against the clause becoming a European policy, sources said. A new, significantly watered down text is now expected. 

But in most other aspects, French ambitions for a pact on immigration seem likely to succeed. Nevertheless, Spain, whose economy relies heavily on foreign workers, also dislikes the French proposals on abandoning mass regularisation of immigrants. 

French Green MEP attacks 

On the first day of the French EU Presidency, Sarkozy’s plans to better control immigration were attacked in the European Parliament by French Green MEP Marie Anne Isler Béguin. At a conference under the heading "Which mobility between neighbours?", she strongly criticised the proposed strategy, which in her words transfers the obligation of repressive border control to the neighbours of Europe. 

"The EU neighbours are, in fact, obliged to sign readmission agreements, which require them to control in a repressive way their borders with the Union. Thus the EU transfers upon its neighbours the responsibility of managing migration, sometimes neglecting its international human rights commitments," she said. 

The French MEP also implied that the EU is trying to bribe the elites of the neighbouring countries by offering them visa facilitations. 

But Isler Béguin also admitted that the pact on immigration is the French Presidency initiative with the best chance of success. The reason for this, she said, is the fact that Europe is becoming "more and more conservative". 

Latin American leaders angered by the Returns Directive 

In the meantime in Buenos Aires, Latin American leaders voiced their strong opposition the recently adopted EU Returns Directive. "Presidents of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) member states and associate states reject any attempt to criminalise the irregular migration and the adoption of restrictive immigration policies, in particular against the most vulnerable sectors of society, namely, women and children," read the summit conclusions. 

South America welcomed with "generosity and solidarity" millions of European migrants in previous centuries," so the EU decision appears even more unfair, the statement said.