Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-04-Speech-2-135"
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"en.20000704.5.2-135"2
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"Mr President, I would like to thank the President-in-Office and the Commissioner for their words and to add my voice to the many who have expressed their shock and horror at this tragic loss of life discovered in Dover.
The committee which I have the honour to chair has repeatedly made clear its view that we need a European immigration policy. This tragedy involving those so desperate to reach our shores – and it is of course no isolated incident – throws into sharp relief the lack of an immigration policy. We know that the numbers trying to come to our continent are not in fact increasing over time. It is simply that as the legal avenues have closed, so the private sector has moved in to exploit the illegal avenues.
Last year's summit in Tampere gave a mandate to the Commission to start moving towards a common policy and I understand from my meeting last week with Mr Chevenement, President-in-Office of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, that the French presidency will launch initiatives to deal with the persons involved, to deal with the transporters of these victims. The European Parliament looks forward to being consulted on these initiatives.
But these are not enough. How long will it take for governments to realize that they have no clothes in this matter? How long will it take for them to realize that the criminals are so far ahead of them, and to develop the methods of police cooperation which will put an end to this vile trafficking? I am even tempted to suggest that they might use things like the Echelon system to start fighting against these traffickers, but that might be rather provocative in view of the vote coming up on Thursday.
The fact is that we should be proud that we have developed a society which is so attractive that people wish to come and join us, but we should perhaps also be rather ashamed that our development aid policy has not been more successful in reducing the push factors in some of the countries of origin. Until we succeed – and I recognise the work of the high-level working groups – in reducing these push factors, we ought perhaps to open our doors a little. It might even be in our own interest, rejuvenating an ageing population and enriching our own culture.
I am pleased to hear that Canada is among the countries invited to the presidency's seminar. We might be advised to take a leaf out of Canada's book. The Liberal Government's proposals there are to close the backdoor to illegal immigration but at the same time open the front door to a legal migration policy."@en1
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