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Sarah's speech on an integrated approach to migration
November 13, 2007 10:00 AM
By Sarah Ludford MEP in European Parliament
By Sarah Ludford MEP in European Parliament
Mr President, one point I wanted to make was very similar to what Mr Fava has just said about the absence of any major emphasis on the need for an EU policy on legal migration. We have had the proposals from Commissioner Frattini - and all credit to him - but we need great pressure to be put on Member States to respond to those proposals because the challenge of getting a comprehensive and well managed legal migration system for the EU should be up there with the challenge of climate change. It links into so many other issues, economic and social.
We should be having a summit of Prime Ministers to look at not only EU competence but also exchanges of best practice on management of migration as well as integration. I must confess I have my doubts about the emphasis that is put by the Commission on the benefits of circular migration. I wonder whether that is going to come unstuck in the same way that our experience with Gastarbeiter did many years ago. I am not sure that it is going to work out. Human beings do not necessarily leave when they envisaged that they would leave.
My last point is to raise data protection concerns about the envisaged entry-exit scheme and the electronic travel authorisation. I do not know what electronic travel authorisation will add to the visa information system, and I look forward to hearing a great deal more from Commissioner Frattini about these schemes.
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