Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-26-Speech-3-012"
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"en.20070926.2.3-012"2
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"Madam President, Mr Vice-President of the Commission, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Mrs Gruber, ladies and gentlemen, imagining the future of Europe and of our societies with no immigration in the age of globalisation is a departure from reality. Immigration is necessary and positive for the EU’s demographic stability, economic growth and cultural diversity.
Ladies and gentlemen, we need political courage and desire to tackle the greatest attraction of illegal immigration: illegal employment. We must win the battle against the mafias and unscrupulous entrepreneurs who exploit illegal immigrants. It is a business that involves enormous amounts of hidden interests and money, and this requires a firm and energetic response.
We must, as you said, Mr Vice-President, apply zero tolerance to illegal employment in order to reduce the underground economy that creates the ‘call effect’. The psychological dimension is obvious. If there is no chance of working illegally in the EU, there are fewer incentives for emigrating to it.
We also wish to ask the Member States to take decisive action with adequate financial resources to combat the trafficking of human beings through judicial and police cooperation, paying particular attention to the most vulnerable – women and children – and ensuring that they have access to health care and education.
External action requires dialogue and close cooperation with the countries of origin and transit. We must continue along the path initiated at the Ministerial Conferences held in Rabat and Tripoli and the Brussels World Forum, placing the emphasis on the link between immigration and development.
We must make immigration a factor of development in the countries of origin and the host countries, and ensure that we use codevelopment to jointly tackle the deeper causes of illegal immigration.
We must also maximise the positive impact of funds sent back by immigrants as regards development in their respective countries and explore the potential of micro-credit.
Moreover, we must have a coherent external policy to ensure the compatibility of trade objectives and development aid so that less-developed countries can export their products and do not have to export their own nationals.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would not wish to end my speech without extending my thanks to all the rapporteurs, with whom I enjoyed close positive cooperation, as reflected in the broad consensus achieved in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
Let us make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, we must fight illegal immigration and tackle its causes and channels, but we do not have to fight illegal immigrants, for they are not criminals: emigrating is not a crime. We must put an end to the populist xenophobic discourse that associates immigration with insecurity, crime, terrorism or unemployment. No one emigrates on a whim: it is always out of necessity. Let us act to eliminate this necessity and transform it into a personal choice.
What we need are legal immigrant workers with rights and obligations, not slaves. The development and success of a legal immigration policy largely depend on a constant fight against the other side of the coin: illegal immigration.
Managing and controlling these illegal migratory flows surpass the capacity for individual action by the Member States, and there can be no doubt that this is the most delicate aspect of the common general immigration policy that must be developed by the European Union.
Recent social and economic imbalances, international conflicts and climate change will increase illegal flows to the EU. The flows move faster than our political response, and they will not stop of their own accord. We have to take action now.
We welcome and support the Commission’s approach. It is essential for the development of a more coherent and effective policy by the Member States based on full respect for human dignity and fundamental rights, in a spirit of solidarity, shared responsibility, transparency and mutual trust.
First, we must have secure land, air and sea borders through integrated surveillance and monitoring, and here Frontex and RABIT are the path we must take: the path towards shared responsibility and solidarity.
Ladies and gentlemen, Frontex works. Where operations have been carried out, lives have been saved and illegal immigration substantially reduced. Illegal immigrants have had to seek out other routes, as has been observed recently in Spain and Italy.
However, Frontex is a new-born infant, a child of the EU that can only grow up and carry out its function with support from its parents, the Member States, whom we would ask to make good their undertakings by supplying the human and logistics resources required.
Furthermore, it is essential to establish, as a deterrent, a European return policy with full respect for human rights and to work on drawing up readmission agreements with third countries. We wish to see a return directive adopted during the Portuguese Presidency."@en1
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