Summary: "Migration and Development: time for creative and courageous approaches" - Speech by EU Commissioner Frattini (22 November 2006, Tripoli)
Speech by Franco Frattini, European Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security; "Migration and Development: time for creative and courageous approaches" at the EU-AFRICA Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development
The EU Commission is grateful to out Libyan hosts and friends, as well as to The African Union for the hard work done in the preparations of this historic conference.
Migration can bring great benefits, but this can only happen if we are ready to commit ourselves to a real partnership and to work, side by side, towards the achievement of commonly shared objectives.
The African approach is comprehensive: it brings together a wide variety of different policies that all have a direct or indirect influence on migration: employment, development, health, social matters and integration, the financial dimension, human rights, peace and stability, justice, security and others.
I believe it is the right approach. And it ties in with the approach adopted by the European Council in December 2005 when it defined the so-called 'Global Approach to Migration'.
Our joint approach must be based on tangible and active solidarity. This solidarity should be deep enough for it to reach out to migrants and their families.
We, Africans and Europeans alike, need to work together to develop an
'Afro-European Approach to migration'. The Declaration that we hopefully adopt at the end of this Conference must reflect our common understanding of how we can make migration work for the benefit of development and what concrete steps we can take to make this a reality.
On substance, we agree that our approach be comprehensive: we need to address legal migration, combat illegal migration and deal with subjects covered by the migration and development agenda, such as migrant remittances, brain circulation and working with migrant communities in Europe.
The EU will develop a common European policy on labour immigration to respond to the needs of our labour markets and initiatives to facilitate labour mobility will already be taken in 2007.
It is our intention to provide African countries with information on job opportunities in Europe through the establishment of a European Job Mobility Portal. The EU will also support initiatives on labour matching, with the aim of facilitating the link between supply and demand.
In developing these policies, we must take account of the labour needs of all Member States involved, European and African. We must all remain aware of the risks and consequences of the brain drain. Policy must be devised that takes full account of the potential benefits to third countries of the legal migration of workers to Europe, in terms of training and economic opportunities.
We must also continue to address the needs of migrants once they arrive in a country of destination. The nexus between migration and integration is a further priority. The European Commission will develop instruments that make for wider participation of the various stakeholders, including the migrants themselves, thus contributing to the promotion of an effective integration strategy.
We also intend to ensure that more decisive action is taken to guarantee that migrants learn the language and society's values of their host country and that possible barriers to language training are removed as a matter of urgency. We must break down the "barriers of distrust" that hamper any constructive and open dialogue between the host societies and newcomers.
Fighting illegal migration and trafficking in human beings must remain a priority for all of us, not least to prevent the losses of life and the horrible crime of exploitation that is so often a consequence. The Commission will propose new legislation on penalties against employers of illegal migrants, given that the chance to obtain work in the EU without the required legal status is a key pull-factor for illegal immigration.
The EU is ready to lend its support to African states to help them become Parties to the UN Smuggling and Trafficking Protocols, and we must all jointly work towards implementing the Ouagadougou Action Plan on Trafficking in Human Beings, which this conference will endorse. National and international strategies need to be put in place that provide instruments for prosecuting traffickers and offer protection to victims, giving specific attention to the needs and interests of minors and
women.
We will issue a Communication in the first quarter of 2007 on rights of children in the context of policies of aid and development.
It is vital to keep asylum and protection issues as one of the main elements of our dialogue and cooperation. The EU will continue to fund activities in Africa, and to give support to refugees and persons in need of international protection.
Finally, return and readmission should remain a part of the efforts of all states to manage migration. Our policy in the area of return should focus on encouraging voluntary returns as far as possible; and this could be aided by the establishment of programmes designed to foster the economic and social reintegration of irregular migrants in their countries of origin.
As far as readmission is concerned, the Commission is keen to bring negotiations that are underway on the basis of its existing mandates to a rapid conclusion and attaches the highest importance to the effective implementation by its ACP partners of their readmission commitments under Article 13 of the Cotonou Agreement.
Let me now turn to the implementation of the measures that this conference will identify as priority areas.
If we want to be credible in our cooperation, Africa and Europe need to put efficient instruments in place that will ensure concrete and tangible results.
A concrete new tool for developing a strategy of this kind at national level could be the establishment of Migration Profiles. These profiles will help to bring together and analyse all the relevant information needed to develop concrete measures in the field of migration and development and to assess the impact of policies taken.
The EU stands ready to assist interested African states in putting together the first Migration Profiles in 2007.
Using these Profiles as a basis, we should establish cooperation platforms on migration and development to bring together African countries, EU Member States and international organisations to manage migration more effectively in the interests of all, along specific migratory routes. The active involvement of regional organisations such as the World Bank, various UN Agencies, the ILO, African and European Financial Institutions and the International Organisation for Migration needs to be
ensured and there is a need for more coherency in their efforts.
It should be our aim also to have the first meetings of these cooperation platforms also in 2007.
Migration Profiles will give us a clearer picture of the migration situation in a given country. This information can then be used to provide technical and financial assistance to African countries to solve the root causes of migration flows. One idea could be to establish Migration Support Teams (MISTs) composed of experts from EU Member States which could provide the necessary assistance to requesting African states. Europe should become more active and forthcoming when it comes to migration
issues. This is what I strive to do.
Obviously, I have to discuss further the idea of MISTs with the Member States but I wanted to share this idea with you to make you understand my personal commitment to finding commonly shared solutions to migration, which also includes the South-South dimension. Europe and Africa should step up their cooperation in a spirit of mutual trust and genuine commitment on both sides.
I would like to encourage those African countries that are interested in indicating their readiness to do so as soon as possible so that concrete arrangements can be made.
The EU is ready to work in partnership to help build up the capacity of African states to manage asylum and migration, also for South-North flows as well as for South-South. We are ready to use European Community funds to establish twinning arrangements to share experience and best practice.
Devising effective policies and measures on migration means collecting the raw data. We need to ensure the links between policy and research are promoted so as to make best use of this research and thus contribute to a better understanding of migration realities and policy development.
To this end, the EU will facilitate all the initiatives aiming at establishing a pan-African migration observatory network.
Once conditions have been met, such as cooperation on illegal migration and effective mechanisms for the readmission of illegal migrants, Mobility Packages could be agreed upon between the EU and interested African states, which would make for easier movement of people and give them better access to the EU labour market. Quotas will continue to be set at national level in Member States of the European Union. But I hope it will be possible for the EU Commission to know exactly the working needs
on a State by State basis, to use them as an instrument to get political packages and agreements with African countries by offering to them concrete job opportunities, training projects, people circulation strategies.
This is just an idea of the policies I wish to implement in the months ahead.
In conclusion, in the past year alone, this ongoing dialogue has included the UN High Level Dialogue; the Rabat conference; continued EU-Africa and EU-ECOWAS Troika meetings; meetings within the EuroMed framework and numerous bilateral meetings.
I strongly encourage all the participants to agree on the Joint Declaration, indeed, the measures contained in the Joint Declaration should be implemented in partnership at pan-African, at sub-regional and at bilateral level. When I talk about partnership, I mean co-ownership of common processes and co-management of common initiatives.
The Commission believes that it is important to put in place appropriate political and technical follow-up arrangements between the two continents, as proposed in our draft Declaration.
It is vital that we continue to seek comprehensive ways of fostering the links and synergies between migration and development. We must consider both short and long-term measures, in particular in the context of addressing the root causes of migration such as poverty, armed conflict and unemployment, as well as the coherence of our policies, including trade, agriculture and fisheries policies.
The agenda has now been set. The European Commission and I personally commit fully to advancing it in a spirit of true partnership and increased solidarity.
| Top |
European Union Member States
Alerts by email
Email this page
Print this page