Frattini hints at ‘selective’ immigration policy

Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini told justice ministers in Dresden that he will begin negotiations with countries such as Mali, Mauritania and Senegal to establish legal networks for immigration.

Commissioner Franco Frattini’s proposed programme, which he announced on 15 January 2007, aims to draw skilled African workers to Europe and will be modelled on the US ‘Green Card’ system, to enable highly qualified immigrant employees who have gained permission to work in one EU country to automatically move to another.

Frattini thus signalled for the first time that the EU is looking at ways of opening up legal immigration, but stressed that newcomers will only be given temporary access to help combat labour shortages in Europe.

In the fight against illegal immigration, the EU ‘must also offer legal access to its labour markets’, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said after informal talks with his counterparts and the bloc’s justice ministers here. The focus will be on giving foreigners temporary migration opportunities to meet specific EU labour market needs, Schäuble added. 

Frattini spoke of his concern over the expected wave of migration from Africa in April, and urged member nations to provide help to patrol the EU southern border – the number of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa arriving on the Canary Islands rose to 31,000 last year, six times more than in 2005. 

Ministers agreed that protecting the bloc’s external borders and combating illegal immigration would remain the EU’s top priority.

About half a million illegal immigrants enter the EU each year. Spain and other southern member states have repeatedly complained that the EU-27 lets them down in tackling the immigration crisis.