EU Economic Migration Policy Essential

3.35.56pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 27th Oct 2005

On a day when the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking as EU President, told the European Parliament that controlled migration was one of the top EU priorities, MEPs approved a hotly contested report welcoming the beneficial contribution of migrants to EU labour markets and prosperity.

Amendments from left and liberal groups overturned the narrow view of the author, German Christian Democrat MEP Ewa Klamt, which focused on administrative coordination of admission criteria. European Liberals and Democrats (ALDE group) highlighted the positive aspects of immigration and the need for a wider approach to include integration and social and political rights for migrants. Liberal Democrat MEPs helped defeat amendments not relevant to economic migration, such as return and asylum procedures.

The Liberal Democrats' European justice spokeswoman, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, said:

"The European Parliament has sensibly endorsed the need for a comprehensive EU legal framework on economic migration. This would respond to the common concerns of all EU Member States, from demographic decline and labour shortages to tackling illegal immigration. MEPs insist on a secure legal status for regular migrant workers, to combat exploitation and the hidden economy."

Speaking about the demand for voting rights in local and European Parliament elections for migrants who have been continuously resident in the EU for at least five years, Sarah Ludford said:

"This is a key step towards full integration of migrants in our societies, and I welcome the adoption of such a policy by the right-wing French interior minister Nicholas Sarkozy. Such voting rights for migrants are also an important test for democracy in the EU".

Note

Member States have failed so far to agree basic EU rules on labour migration, despite a European Commission proposal from 2001. The topic of economic migration is the remaining one within the asylum & immigration chapter of the EU treaty where decisions are still taken with unanimity and the European Parliament is denied to right to 'co-decide' on legislation.