Brussels, 04/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just signed a contract with Florence's European University institute to carry out an aid project on immigration, the movement of persons and social integration of immigrants in the Mediterranean region. With an envelope of 2 million EUR and placed under the aegis of the co-operation office EuropeAid, this project is funded as part of the MEDA programme for three years. Its objective is to follow, analyse and predict flows in the EU and the Mediterranean region with a view to supporting the Mediterranean partners in their efforts to design and implement migration policies. The objective is to concretise the activities planned by the justice plank of MEDA to fight against drugs, organised crime and terrorism.
For the first time, the project will put in place an information system on migration, a new instrument for the analysis and forecasting of migratory flows, common to the Member States of the EU and their Mediterranean partners. It also aims to develop regional skills in terms of migration via targeted training and applied research actions and studies, the results of which will be published in paper form and on the website. The project will take a multi-faceted approach, looking simultaneously at the demographic, economic, legal, social and political dimensions of migration. The analysis will focus on the whole migration chain, on the countries of origin and arrival, and will be based on identical categories to allow international comparisons.