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Report - EU meets in Cannes

Immigration plan aims to cherry-pick labour

by Sarah Elzas

Article published on the 2008-07-08 Latest update 2008-07-10 15:25 TU

Brice Hortefeux(Photo: AFP)

Brice Hortefeux
(Photo: AFP)

France presented its plan for European immigration at an informal meeting of European interior and immigration ministers in the southern French resort city of Cannes on Monday 7 July. The pact calls for member-states to tighten up borders, while also encouraging legal immigration to fill gaps in the labour market.

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Before the meeting, France's Immigration and National Identity Minister Brice Hortefeux visited European capitals to drum up support for the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.

His efforts were rewarded at the informal meeting in the Riviera resort of Cannes, although he had been forced to drop a proposal for an "obligatory integration contract", which would have defined how immigrants should behave, largely because of Spanish opposition.

Among other measures, the contract would have legally obliged new arrivals to learn the language of the country in which they were to live.

The agreement discourages countries from handing out entry permits en masse, as Spain and Italy have done recently and as France has done under previous governments.

It will also tighten up border controls, giving rise to charges of a desire to build a "fortress Europe", while helping development in countries with high emigration rates.

But, with many countries needing immigrant labour in key sectors of their economies, the pact provides for selective admission of workers with skills that Europe needs.

In another proposal, asylum-seekers will be increasingly obliged to apply for entry from outside Europe, a move which critics say reduces their chances of escaping repression.

The EU, which estimates that there are six million immigrants without permits within its borders, recently drafted a "return directive" which allowed would-be immigrants to be detained for up to 18 months and has plans for a "blue card" scheme, similar to the US's green card.