Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-14-Speech-3-174"
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"en.20040114.4.3-174"2
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".
Mr President, I am pleased to be here today to present the main aspects of the Commission communication on immigration, integration and employment, and would like to begin by congratulating the rapporteur, Mr Moraes, on the excellent quality of his report.
Finally, I would like to stress that I fully agree with, and welcome, the rapporteur's suggestion to establish programmes for the initial reception of persons arriving in an EU Member State. We are currently implementing the pilot projects in support of the integration of migrants. There has been enormous interest in these pilot projects and the programme has been oversubscribed to a factor of ten. We allocated EUR 4 million and applications have been made for more than EUR 41 million.
Let me end by saying that I believe, and hope, that this communication on immigration, integration and employment will provide a basis for strengthening integration policy for immigrants, which will be crucial both for the development of the EU economy and for the promotion of social cohesion in the next few decades.
This very important Commission communication completes our response to the Tampere mandate and fulfils the pledge to examine the role of immigration in relation to the Lisbon strategy. The communication carries two key messages. The first – which has already been expressed in the Commission communication of November 2000 – is that, in the context of demographic ageing and decline, sustained immigration flows are likely and necessary if the European Union is to meet the Lisbon goals.
Secondly, the full potential of immigration and its contribution to economic development can only be realised if immigrants are fully integrated both into the labour market and into society in general. Given the estimated speed of population decline from 2010 onwards and the results of the national survey conducted by the Commission, there is an urgent need to strengthen integration policies, as was called for by the European Council in Tampere and more recently at the European Council in Thessaloniki.
The Commission is pleased that the rapporteur has laid the emphasis on the potential which migrants bring with them. It fully agrees that integration is a matter for society as a whole and that it is a two-way process, based on mutual rights and corresponding obligations, which implies that both the immigrant and the host society must adapt.
I would also like to emphasise that we fully agree that we must ensure a European legal framework for the admission of economic migrants and that Member States must keep to the promises made in Tampere.
The Commission has taken note of the difficulties encountered when negotiating in the Council the directive on admission for employment purposes, and is currently considering how best to approach bringing forward this politically sensitive issue. A Green Paper, followed by an extensive consultation procedure, is envisaged and we are also undertaking a study on the links between illegal and legal migration, which may provide pointers for the future development of a more coherent legal framework for the admission of migrants for employment purposes.
Adoption of the directive on the admission of researchers is also envisaged for the very near future. Negotiations on the directive on the admission of students is now entering the core phase and I am convinced that this proposal too will shortly be adopted.
The communication considers that, in order to ensure successful integration, there is a need for an holistic approach that takes into account not only economic and social aspects – these are very important – but also issues relating to cultural and religious diversity, civic citizenship, participation and political rights. The Commission is therefore pleased to note the specific attention paid in the report to the concept we put forward of civic citizenship and the need to promote a sense of belonging.
A key condition for the successful implementation of an holistic approach of this type is that there should be improved overall policy coherence and synergies between immigration, integration and employment policies at all levels and across all disciplines and between all relevant actors, bearing in mind that prime responsibility for successful integration ultimately lies with the Member States."@en1
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