Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-02-12-Speech-3-199"
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"en.20030212.6.3-199"2
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"Mr President, 1999 already seems ages ago. That was the year that the agreements we know well – indeed, with which we are all too familiar – were reached in Tampere on the new European asylum and migration policy to be set up and a deadline was even attached to that, 5 years. Now we are in 2003, and not much has happened. I think that as far as that is concerned I am rather less enthusiastic about the outcomes of the Seville Summit, as will also be clear from our support for the position of our rapporteur Baroness Ludford.
What I say is not entirely true, of course, because actually a lot has happened, only not in the dusty chambers of the Council. Since 1999, roughly 700 000 legal migrants a year have come to the European Union to work. And in those same four years around two million illegals have entered Europe. Of course that was not the intention, but you cannot say that Europe is full, even though the feeling has certainly arisen in some Member States that immigration is responsible for serious social tension and that the sharing of responsibilities between the Member States has not been at all fair. That is one of the reasons for adopting a European approach.
In my country, the Netherlands, immigration for work has doubled since 1998 but against this stream of migrants we are dealing with a Europe that is getting older and older. In the Netherlands 20% of the population will be over 65 within 20 years, in Germany a similar figure has already been reached and what we call the ‘grey wave’ means that by 2050 there will be 80 pensioners for every 100 working people. At the moment there are 40 for every 100. It is not hard to imagine the effects this will have on the welfare state and pensions.
It strikes me that the Council has been ignoring the long view. Recent years tell the story of how it has continued to look anxiously at how things are going and taken decisions on an ad hoc basis. We need to get real; now is the time to act. Immigration, of whatever kind, and the ageing of the population pay no attention to the passing of time; they just carry on unabated. There is no solution to be found in either a Fortress Europe or a rejuvenating elixir. My proposal to the Council is that we take a decision on European immigration policy during the Greek Presidency and stop pussyfooting around.
Today Parliament voted on a directive on the entry and residence of citizens of third countries who want to enter the European Union to work. If you, the Council, really want to mean something to the citizens of Europe, vote for this directive. That would demonstrate foresight and with that initiative towards a sort of blue card we could start to regulate labour migration more effectively to the benefit of both groups, the migrants themselves and the countries that receive them. I ask the Council not to avoid that decision now and to remember that those who really want to get over that high fence into Europe come with all the social tensions associated with that and so it is sensible to create a gateway so that their entry is regulated."@en1
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