Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-14-Speech-2-319"
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"en.20061114.37.2-319"2
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For any action concerning migration and development to be crowned with success, it must be exhaustive and integrated, and we must use our financial instruments in the short and medium term and embark on an enhanced political dialogue, particularly with our African partners.
The Commission’s strategy for helping the countries of West Africa faced with returning migrants is thus based on three additional lines of action. Firstly, it is a question of responding to the urgent nature of the situation by harnessing the instruments available: I am thinking of the B-envelope, and of the rapid reaction mechanism. Regarding Senegal, for example, the Commission is going to spend EUR 9.6 million on implementing measures for supporting and reintegrating repatriated migrants. This sum is in fact the remainder of the ninth European Development Fund. These measures will be accompanied by other financial measures funded by the rapid reaction mechanism, amounting to around EUR 1.9 million.
Secondly, we must work on the medium term by taking account of migration-related aspects when implementing our cooperation instruments. Migration-related issues constitute an important aspect of the tenth European Development Fund programme, in addition to the existing instruments. We have therefore provided a ‘migration’ facility with EUR 25 million, taken from the balance of the B-envelope under the 9th EDF.
There are many types of reintegration-related measures that are conceivable in the medium term: to implement effective readmission systems between all of the countries concerned, while respecting people’s dignity and fundamental rights; to emphasise training and admission so as to help returning illegal immigrants reintegrate into their countries of origin; to financially support national and regional programmes aimed at reintegrating migrants; and to promote information and awareness-raising campaigns for potential immigrants on the risks of illegal immigration.
However, at the risk of seeming somewhat unrealistic, I should nevertheless like to add that we obviously need to ensure that the support and reintegration measures, whatever they may be, do not appear to favour migrants who return to their countries over those who do not leave. If they do appear to favour them, you will obviously encourage others to leave, and I think that it is extremely important to monitor this. Ultimately, in the long term, the real answer, as we know, is to have a policy for training and employing young people, which is one of the policies receiving the backing of the European Community, through its support for economic integration policies and through the negotiation of economic partnership agreements aimed at attracting investment and at increasing economic growth, which are prerequisites for the creation of attractive jobs. These policies are central to the development priorities and the strategy concerning Africa.
I must tell you that, from this perspective, I am one of those who believe that, while growth does not necessarily lead to a reduction in poverty, there can be no reduction in poverty without growth: we must remember that. I am therefore convinced that the long-term answer consists in promoting economic partnership agreements and in supporting the emergence of integrated regional markets which, I might add, can go hand in hand with a massive aid effort on the part of the European Union in terms of bringing the qualitative standards of products up to the required level, of technology transfer and of the construction of regional and subregional infrastructure, of infrastructure to improve access, and so on.
To conclude, I am going to take the liberty, Madam President, of digressing in order to make a somewhat personal observation, which deserves to be given some thought. There are immediate measures, which must necessarily be taken and which are sadly often of a security nature, which is something that I can understand because our citizens are worried, are bothered by the phenomenon, and because we have difficulty in managing migratory flows. There are also long-term policies, which are development policies. Alongside these immediate measures and these policies, I wonder whether it would not be useful if we were to start giving thought to what I shall refer to as supported migration. I am not talking about quotas, which is an old idea, and one that I am not very keen on for the moment. I am thinking instead, for example, that funding could be allocated to migration agencies in the migrants’ countries of origin. These agencies could provide potential migrants with information and could also work with the Western European countries that offer job opportunities, without for all that encouraging a brain drain, which is another of my concerns. These agencies could, as it were, play the role of regulator in the two ways mentioned. There is in fact one thing about which I will not be convinced: it is not by closing the borders, it is not by taking coercive measures, and it is not by repatriating people
that we will settle this issue concerning migrants. We are going to have to live with this phenomenon for many years yet. Immigration is not a new phenomenon. There have always been migrations. We, in Europe, have the impression that we have suddenly unearthed a phenomenon that did not previously exist. For as long as the Earth has existed, there have been migrations. I am sorry to have to point that out. That being said, I understand that this phenomenon is difficult to manage and I understand that measures must be taken, and sometimes taken immediately, but I wonder whether, precisely because we are Europeans and because we uphold European values, we ought not to start giving thought to what I will call a third way, which I feel is more realistic. These migration agencies could easily provide training so as to enable young people from the countries concerned to become, for example, small business owners, traders and small craftsmen, because what is lacking most in these poor countries is a significant middle class. It is also lacking in both the economic and political spheres, since there is generally more political stability in countries in which there is a significant middle class.
There you have the small digression that I wanted to make, Madam President. I believe that it is important to be a little bolder in our thinking."@en1
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