Brussels, 29/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just published its annual report (together with the EC Statistical Office, Eurostat) into the social situation in the European Union (2002) focussing on mobility trends within, into and out of the EU. Mobility is influenced by three factors - education (language skills), income and health. The report shows that immigration cannot correct the effects of Europe's ageing population or help create a sustainable job market or pension systems. What is required is more women and old people at work (and consequently an improvement to childcare, long-term care and higher quality work for women) and cutting the wage gap, Commissioner Anna Diamantopou's spokesperson, Andrew Fielding, told reporters.
The report's author, Costa Fotakis (DG Employment), said that two things should be highlighted - the fact that there are differences between Member States in terms of rates of employment (ranging from just above 75% in Denmark to less than 58% in Greece and Italy) and the fact that the impact of a doubling of the fertility rate will not been seen on the job market for another 20 years. Fotakis added that 3 workers were needed to fund the retirement years of every baby-boomer. And for these 3 workers, another 10 people were needed, since only around half the population works. So a selective or more general immigration policy has to be adopted in order to greatly increase the number of immigrants. He said that very highly educated immigrants currently worked in high technology firms for example and that this type of immigration was very profitable to the EU and one cannot ignore the fact that most immigrants come because of the offer of work (echoing the outcome of the Bratislava conference, see EUROPE of 25 May, pp 13/14).