Brussels, 16/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption on the occasion of its last plenary session (11 and 12 February in Brussels) of the opinion presented by British Labour member Derek Boden on immigration, integration and employment in the EU, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) places emphasis on the role of the local and regional authorities whose powers essentially cover housing, planning, education, health and the labour market and therefore have a direct impact on the integration of persons, within implementation of such a policy, and welcomes the finalisation of a global European strategy on integration which involves social partners and the civil society.
The CoR affirms in a press release that, in order to maximise their potential, the Member States need to provide a "proper basis for the immigrants' integration into the civil and working life of the European societies". Derek Boden believes that, given the acute shortages of both high and low skilled workers in the labour market and the anticipated demographic deficit in Europe, the EU must ensure more effective policies: "Otherwise, immigrants will not be able to fulfil their potential nor make their full contribution to economic development". Special attention should be drawn to gender-focused measures, Mr Boden states, since unemployment is often high among women. The CoR also insists that Community migration policy should attach great importance to economic and social development outside the EU so as to improve the quality of life for the citizens of those countries.
Finally, Mr Boden stresses that the Lisbon goals cannot be met without a successful immigration policy. He goes on to conclude: "integration policies also need to be accompanied by supporting strategies to tackle racism and xenophobia".