Summit to back immigration policy overhaul

Dwarfed by the financial crisis, the issue of immigration has momentarily slipped to the back of political debate, meaning that the adoption later today (15 October) of a European Pact on Immigration and Asylum by EU leaders – meant to be one of the highlights of the French EU Presidency – risks going unnoticed.

The lack of attention from both governments and the press may come as quite a blow for French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux, who had hoped to make the date the apex of his country’s stint at the helm of political Europe. 

At the heart of the Pact, which takes the form of a political declaration, is the idea, defended by the Elysée, that European governments should be able to “choose” immigration according to their labour needs, based on the assumption that “the European Union […] does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants who hope to find a better life here”. 

The Pact therefore sets out a number of basic principles for managing migration and calls on the European Commission to come forward with new proposals in five policy areas: legal and illegal migration, border controls, asylum and cooperation with third countries. 

Legal migration: The Pact on Migration builds upon on the work done so far by the Commission in the context of the Policy Plan on Legal Migration, including the so-called Blue Card initiative that aims to facilitate the entry and residence of highly skilled workers (EURACTIV LinksDossier) to the EU in a bid to compete with the US in the race for highly qualified foreign labour. 

Three further proposals will be presented in the coming months: one for seasonal workers, one for remunerated trainees and one for intra-corporate transferees. The stalemate of the Lisbon Treaty will however most likely slow down the legislative process in the field of legal migration as the introduction of the co-decision procedure will have to wait. 

Illegal immigration: The “selective repatriation of illegal immigrants” will be regulated by the recently adopted Return Directive (see EURACTIV LinksDossier), which triggered large protests in Latin America due to tough provisions that would allow member states to jail illegal immigrants for up to 18 months (EURACTIV 27/06/08). The Pact also calls on member states to enhance co-operation even further by organising joint flights for repatriation, improving readmission agreements and increasing the fight against human trafficking. 

Border controls: The Pact seeks to make border controls more effective by beefing up security controls, making use of new technologies and granting greater powers to border authorities, with a key focus on the role of Frontex, the Warsaw-based agency charged with monitoring and enhancing external border security. The document envisages the establishment of two separate permanent bodies of command, one for southern and one for eastern member states. This is meant to address the concerns of Mediterranean countries, for which migration poses qualitative and quantitatively different challenges than in Central and Eastern Europe. 

Asylum policies: The pact calls on member states to develop common guarantees on asylum, as well as an asylum support offices, in the course of 2009. A single asylum procedure is expected by 2010. 

Third countries: The Pact views cooperation with countries of origin as central to the resolution of the migration conundrum, and necessary for policies tackling legal and illegal migration alike. The document stresses the importance of circular migration to offset the negative consequences of ‘brain-drain’. Pointing out that international migration is “a reality that will persist”, the Pact considers “close partnership between the countries of origin, transit and destination” as the most appropriate response to the challenges it poses. 

Nevertheless, as pointed out by civil liberties network Statewatch, it remains far from clear how the call for enhanced ‘mutual responsibility and solidarity’ – one of the central features in the Pact – will be implemented in practice.  

Read more with Euractiv

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