Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-12-Speech-1-108"
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"en.20071112.19.1-108"2
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"Mr President, most of us recognise the benefits of migration. The Member States which have opened their borders to migrants from other Member States have not seen a rise in unemployment; rather, they have seen a growth in productivity, a rise in economic growth and the creation of new jobs.
It is the old, old story. The incomers do jobs that the natives do not want to do, they work hard, they cost little and they bring new ideas. But it is important to recognise that some people cross borders not wishing to work – or at least not wishing to work legally. European Union law recognises this, as you have laid out, Commissioner. While giving the right to reside in other Member States, it allows the host state to limit the right of residence to three months if there is no means of subsistence and to terminate that right if there is a threat to public order.
One of the great successes of our Union has been this right to move freely, now enjoyed by millions of citizens in their studies, in their working lives, in retirement. It is not without its challenges and, just as the Jews, a people lacking a homeland, were often unwelcome in ages past, so today the Roma, some nine million people, are discriminated against in many host countries. Yet to equate the Roma people with the country of Romania, even if many of them are Romanian citizens, is to misunderstand the nature of both. You might as well equate them with the city of Roma.
European Union funds have been made available for the integration of the Roma. We are working with George Soros and his Decade of Roma Inclusion. But we need all Member States to sign up to that and a common Community framework strategy for Roma inclusion if this is to work.
It is a pity that Italy did not draw down any of these funds. Spain drew down some EUR 52 million and Poland some EUR 8 million. But it is not only a lack of foresight on the part of the Italian Government; it is also matched by a lack of foresight on the part of the Commission. I think Mr Barroso was wrong when he said in his interview in
yesterday that it is inconceivable that European Union authorities should promote integration on the ground. It should not be inconceivable.
I share, Mr Frattini, the views of Mr Schulz. You should not be playing party politics in this matter. This House demands that you concentrate on your current responsibilities, not on your possible future career. Italians know as well as others the vulnerability of migrant communities. In 1893, at Aigues-Mortes in France, Italian salt workers in the Peccais were lynched in xenophobic attacks about the protection of local jobs. But one of the great achievements of the Union is that such pogroms are a piece of the past.
Too often, nonetheless, democracies are run by crisis management. It is, perhaps, more evident in Italy than elsewhere. But if there are problems in Italy, there will be problems in other countries too. If the right of residence abroad is an EU right, we cannot allow Member States to rewrite the exceptional provisions, as the Italian Government has done in its decree. There is nothing to stop a country giving powers to prefects to deal with it as long as there is a right of appeal. An appeal to a justice of the peace who is not a legal expert is insufficient, just as is the use only of Italian or English in legal documents. But I trust the Italian Parliament will correct these provisions and ensure consistency of the national legislation with EU provisions.
For us, this is the first real case of the European Parliament overseeing the application of justice and home affairs legislation, together with national parliaments. We need to look not only at what does not work, but at what does work, and we need your active commitment, Commissioner, in that task."@en1
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