Brussels, 12/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament will give its opinion of the report by British Labour MEP Claude Moraes on the Commission's Communication on immigration, integration and employment. The report wants to encourage a holistic approach to immigration management, making a clear link between EU policy and relations with countries of origin, arguing that better integration of recent immigrants and long established ethnic minorities is a vital component of a well controlled immigration policy (see EUROPE of 7 January, p.11, on the Pirker report). For this reason, Moraes urges the Council and Member States to take action to establish managed immigration and examine the causes and consequences of both legal and illegal immigration and asylum requests. Member States should keep the Commission informed about the situation on the informal labour market (the black economy) and its impact on the national economy, states the rapporteur.
The Moraes report also calls on the EU to improve dialogue with non-EU countries to ensure that the deep causes of economic migration are taken into account, and on Member States' governments to define and cooperate in qualitative and quantitative systems for legalising people who arrive in the EU with the appropriate papers and also to sign agreements with countries of origin to ensure immigrants' social security rights are transferred.