Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-10-25-Speech-2-314"
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"en.20051025.24.2-314"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to thank Mrs Klamt in particular for the work produced, for the commitment shown by the whole Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, and for the contribution it has made to the work of the Commission. In January this year the Commission issued a Green Paper aimed at stimulating a transparent public debate throughout Europe, which has involved all the public and private players.
These are the European Commission’s major lines of action. Of course, on this more than on any other subject, Parliament’s voice will be a voice of democracy and a crucial factor in enabling us to reach decisions on which we all agree.
So far we have received 140 different contributions from trade unions, non-governmental organisations, Member States and employers’ organisations, as well as the contribution from the European Parliament itself, which will certainly be one of the key elements in drawing up an action plan. I confirm that I intend to submit the action plan to the Commission by the end of this year.
The guidelines for European action consist primarily of the need for a political strategy. We cannot even think of tackling an issue like immigration, whether legal or illegal, with emergency measures or police actions, either slamming the doors shut as if Europe were a fortress or, conversely, opening them indiscriminately, without thinking about the consequences.
We therefore need political strategies and a joint effort by the 25 European Union Member States. I often hear of small groups of countries that want to act independently or other groups that think they have the solution all sewn up. Quite frankly, I think the only solution can be cohesive action by the whole European Union. In this connection I shall say it again: Parliament, the Council and the Commission must cooperate with each other.
Emergency strategies are needed, certainly, because people are tragically dying in the Mediterranean Sea, and for other reasons. However, we also need medium-term strategies with a broader scope, because immigration must not be just passively tolerated, but wanted and managed according to a European Union political procedure. The results of the Green Paper will be converted into an action plan, from which some guidelines for the European Union will emerge.
We see legal immigration – that is, immigration that conforms to the rules of the Member States and of the European Union – as a resource and not as a threat, and that is how we want to see it. We are aware of the demographic trends that mean that labour is needed from outside the EU, but of course we also know that the Union of 25 must not forget that there are human resources – workers – available in the new Member States of the Union, who are European citizens like us. Therefore, when rules concerning that category of workers are discussed in May 2006, I shall be one of those encouraging the old Member States, the 15, to get rid of the barriers that still stand in the way of workers from the countries that acceded to the European Union in 2004. That is a further aspect to be considered within a broader strategy.
National competences, of course, remain unaffected. Even in the Constitutional Treaty – as you will remember – we decided that the question of determining quotas would be dealt with at a national level. Note that there is not yet any willingness in the Council to decide on entry quotas at a Community level, whereas there is great willingness to formulate common strategies, particularly on managing legal economic immigration and fighting the black economy. Underground workers in the black economy are exploited twice over: on the one hand they are paid less, and on the other they do not benefit from worker’s rights.
We are faced with a commitment that should be considered very carefully by those who are only concerned about letting workers in, showing them solidarity and welcoming them. We should be concerned, rather, that those whom we let into our countries enjoy their full rights as workers and are not forced to work in the black economy without health care or social services, because that is not a decent service for us to offer to friends who enter the European Union legally.
We must therefore adopt a balanced approach: solidarity and integration for those who come here lawfully; a credible policy against traffickers in human beings and those who facilitate illegal immigration; and a credible, common policy to expel those who do not obey our laws. We have to demand that the laws of our lands be obeyed, but in so doing we must also respect the dignity of every human being: an expulsion procedure must never infringe people’s dignity, even if they have come here illegally."@en1
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