At a two day hearing on 14-15 March, MEPs from the Civil Liberties Committee and the Development Committee discussed the EU’s immigration policy, focussing on the links between legal and illegal migration and the integration of migrants into society.
MEPs agreed that the EU must formulate a consistent policy to ease the path for third country nationals seeking to enter and work in the EU and to promote their becoming a full part of the community in which they settle. This was the best way to combat illegal immigration, MEPs said.
Civil liberties rapporteur Patrick Gaubert called for questions of immigration and security to be kept as entirely separate issues and that the current fears of terrorism should not be allowed to muddy the migration debate.
The debate coincides with the publication of a Commission Green Paper on demographic change which shows that the EU is facing a dramatic decline in people of working age.
