Brussels, 26/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-African ministerial conference that took place on Tuesday 25 November in Paris, adopted a multiannual cooperation programme aimed at providing a framework for legal immigration, fighting illegal immigration and organising co-development. The French minister for immigration, integration, national identity and development solidarity, Brice Hortefeux, told journalists that “we reached an agreement without any difficulty on a triennial 2009-11 cooperation declaration-programme between the EU and Africa, which seeks to be concrete and extend what was initiated by Rabat (in 2006)”. Mr Hortefeux explained that the programme consists of a “plethora of around one hundred proposals from which we can draw”. With regard to illegal immigration, this programme proposes to “fight against fraudulent documents” by using information technology and biometrics. It seeks to “strengthen border controls” by “creating common border posts”. It also urges countries of origin to “improve readmission” of foreigners deported from Europe, and departure countries to “promote voluntary returns” through reinsertion aid. To organise legal migration, the programme calls for countries of origin to set up “specialised employment agencies” based on the information and migrant management centres (Cigem) opened in October in Bamako and funded by the European Union. It also confirms the determination to promote “selected immigration” by emphasising migration of “highly qualified workers” while avoiding any “brain drain”. The programme additionally seeks to promote the link between migration and development and calls for “support to the employment and economic and social development programmes of countries of origin”, and improvement to the social protection of migrants by facilitating the “reduction of the cost of remittances and securing” the transfer of these funds. The multiannual programme is available at: (http: //http://www.ue2008.fr ). (B.C./transl.rh)