The European Commission yesterday unveiled new plans aimed at better managing migration flows from Africa towards Europe and combating illegal immigration.

Brussels also proposed the introduction of a “safeguard clause” in its visa regime that would enable it to reintroduce restrictions if some states abused of the EU visa waiver.

Announcing the new “long-term” measures, European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said the EU would be doing its utmost to conclude “mobility partnerships” with North African countries that would facilitate legal channels of migration. This would be in exchange of obligations concerning the return of illegal migrants trying to enter the EU.

The EU Executive was aiming to establish its first mobility partnerships with Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, she said.

The proposals are clearly in response to the influx of thousands of economic migrants to Lampedusa from Tunisia over the past weeks.

An EU official explained the idea of a mobility partnership as promoting initiatives that used existing channels for legal migration while at the same time preventing illegal crossings. “It’s a two-way traffic proposal,” he said. “We will facilitate the possibility of citizens of these countries coming to work in Europe legally and, in return, these countries will agree to take back all their citizens who try to enter the EU illegally”.

Only genuine asylum seekers are allowed temporary residence in the EU until their request is decided. However, over the past few years it has been difficult to repatriate thousands of African economic migrants as their countries of origin have refused to take them back.

Under the “partnerships” system, EU countries would make job vacancy quotas available to people from the partner North African countries, set up “circular” migration programmes, such as in sectors that require seasonal employment, take measures to manage remittances and recognise professional and academic skills needed by the EU labour market. The EU would also support the return and reintegration of migrants to their country of origin.

“It is in the interest of both the EU and the countries of North Africa to promote mobility and well-managed migration. Europe will be increasingly dependent on labour migration and the potential offered by North African countries should be seized in a mutually beneficial manner,” Ms Malmström said.

In view of reported abuse of its visa waiver system for non-EU nationals, particularly by Serbians and Macedonians, the Commission yesterday also decided to introduce a “safeguard clause” aimed at suspending the relaxation of visa rules in case of “exceptional circumstances”.

Ms Malmström said she hoped the EU would “never find the need to use this clause”. “Such a mechanism would provide the EU with a tool, to be used only in exceptional circumstances, for offsetting any possible serious adverse consequences of visa liberalisation and, in particular, the arrival in the EU of a large number of irregular migrants or asylum seekers whose claims are not well-founded.”

The proposed amendments will now have to be approved by member states and the European Parliament.