Interview: ‘Sarkozy is wrong on migration’

Migration, economic woes and civil liberties will be the hot issues for the Liberal family in the 2009 European Parliament election campaign, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) leader Graham Watson told EURACTIV.

Saying he expects migration to be a hot topic during the French EU Presidency starting in July, Watson hopes to stimulate the debate on the issue by launching a pamphlet entitled “Making migration work for Europe”. 

The aim will be to offer an alternative to the positions of President Sarkozy, which he believes are too restrictive via their focus on deportation. Rather, Watson sees merits in the Canadian model for integrating immigrants. 

The leader of the ALDE group also said the economy and civil liberties will be other important issues of his political group’s campaign.

Another issue in 2009 will be the need to achieve a political balance when attributing the new positions of permanent Council President and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, created by the Lisbon Treaty. 

The next presidents of the European Commission and the Parliament will also have to be selected and he admitted that he is himself under pressure to put himself forward as a candidate for the Parliament presidency. 

On Kosovo, Watson called on the EU to ensure stability by sending the EU-Lex mission there. He dismissed Russian criticism of the legality of such a mission, stating that Russia has never expressed any credible alternative to secure peace between Albanians and Serbs (EURACTIV 16/04/08). 

To read the interview with Graham Watson in full, please click here.

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