Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-06-Speech-4-009"
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".
Mr President, rapporteur, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to congratulate the Committee on Development, and in particular Mrs Carlotti, on its work.
I would like finally to confirm that the Commission attaches great importance to policies aimed at alleviating the effects of the brain drain. In this regard, I would like to remind you that last December the Commission adopted a communication on the human resources crisis in the health sectors of developing countries. That communication also contains extremely precise and specific guidelines.
The Commission has established a very ambitious working programme which it intends to implement in close coordination with the Member States, some of which have also launched their own initiatives. All of these initiatives are being carried out, or will be carried out, in partnership with the countries of origin.
The second series of issues that I would like briefly to discuss with you – and this will be no surprise to you – is the very special place that Africa has in this reflection. This point is made very clear in your report. Problems such as the brain drain, the high cost of transfers of money and the weakness of the financial infrastructure on the ground are of very particular significance in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is perhaps in this field that the involvement of migrant populations, if certain conditions are in place, would be most likely to make a difference.
In its conclusions of last December, the European Council pointed out clearly that the two complementary dimensions of improving the links between migration and development that I have just mentioned must be given a special place in the partnership that we are in the process of building with Africa in the migratory field, at all levels of discussion. The links between migration and development will therefore be central to the agenda of the Rabat conference that will bring together representatives from Europe, the Maghreb and countries of Central and West Africa next week to discuss the issue of migration.
The links between migration and development are also one of the key elements of the dialogue that the Commission is developing with a number of Sub-Saharan African countries on the basis of Article 13 of the Cotonou Agreement. The Commission believes that these discussions offer an opportunity to hold a dialogue on the specific support that the Community can give to its African partners to help them better to manage migratory flows and in particular to make better use of the links between migration and development. Finally, these links are also central to our dialogue with the African Union. This should lead to a ministerial conference that will bring together representatives from the European Union and the whole of Africa.
It is therefore by creating more channels of communication that the Commission is endeavouring to develop what we intend to be an exemplary partnership with Africa in the field of migration. There is no question that in this way the European Union can make an important contribution to the high-level dialogue on migration and development that the United Nations is holding in New York in September. In a few days’ time, the Commission will adopt a communication which will constitute its written contribution to that event.
I can assure you that the Commission attaches great importance to this very topical issue of the links between immigration and development, and I can also assure you that the Commission will take your suggestions very seriously. This is a highly detailed report that deals with a very wide range of subjects. Given the time restraints, I shall therefore focus on two very important series of issues.
The first series of issues relates to the coherence of the Community’s actions. I would like to remind you that, for the first time, the Commission has established a very clear link between migration and development. It wanted to send a very clear message about the added value that can be obtained by improving the interaction between migratory phenomena and development. As your report quite rightly points out, there are two dimensions to this interaction.
On the one hand, development policy can play an important role in terms of migratory flows. Last year, the European Union firmly reiterated its commitment to an ambitious development policy, which is aimed at promoting economic and social development and good governance. This policy can thereby contribute to tackling the underlying causes of migration. This is clearly a long-term project and we cannot expect to see results in the short term. I have seen that your report contains some interesting suggestions in this field and we shall look carefully at a number of them. The integration of migration issues into country strategy papers, for example, is something that the Commission has already implemented.
On the other hand, certain phenomena linked to migration may make an effective contribution to the development of countries of origin. That is what the Commission pointed out last year in its communication on immigration and development. That document proposes guidelines which may be used in our relations with the countries of origin in question and which may be eligible for Community financial support.
I particularly welcome your recommendation in the field of co-development, an area which the Commission is also examining. I quote, ‘the priority objective must be to promote the “circulation” of brains in order to compensate for the negative effects of the brain drain. One of the most promising means for doing this are “dual base” systems, which would allow researchers, teachers and medical staff from the South to spend half of their time working in an establishment in their own country’. This seems to me to be an extremely interesting recommendation. I consider this particular recommendation in the report, which relates to how to involve migrant populations in the development of countries of origin, to be a very important suggestion.
In this field, Mrs Carlotti’s report offers real added value. The report’s position is clear: it relies very much on experience of co-development. The Commission has very little experience in this field and I am entirely prepared to base the Commission’s considerations on the experiences and examples of best practices developed by certain Member States.
The report proposes the creation of two funds – I am talking about recommendation 15 – the first intended to fund co-development, the second dedicated to a mechanism for guaranteeing the continuity of microprojects. If I have understood correctly, your idea is to create these funds under the new thematic strategies on migration. I personally would be in favour of creating two items of this type within the thematic programme. Nevertheless, I have yet to discuss this with my colleagues Mr Frattini and Mrs Ferrero-Waldner.
I must also thank you, on behalf of the Commission, for your report’s backing for most of the guidelines contained in the Commission’s communication on migration and development, including the transfer of migrants, the role of migrant populations as factors in the development of countries of origin and the promotion of circular migration and other forms of ‘circulation’ of brains. I must however stipulate that the Commission can only consider actions in this field in strict accordance with the principle of voluntary agreement on the part of migrants and of the independent nature of that agreement. In a similar vein, the money transferred by migrants clearly cannot be seen as a replacement for public development aid, which is more necessary than ever, and to the increase in which the European Union is firmly committed."@en1
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