Commission suggests EU-wide work permit for migrants

The European Commission has kicked off a debate about the formulation of a new EU-wide policy to deal with the problem of immigration.

The Commission has adopted a new Green Paper entitled An EU Approach to Managing Economic Migration, presented by the Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, Franco Frattini.

The Green Paper aims at stimulating a public debate on the need to develop a comprehensive EU strategy to manage migration for economic reasons.

Malta will be affected by this policy due to the hundreds of illegal immigrants who land on its shores every year.

Among the Commission's proposals are a fast-track scheme for immigrants in order to meet specific, short-term labour shortfalls, and a broader programme, along the lines of the US green card, to attract a pool of workers to fill longer-term labour needs.

The paper also touches on the idea of issuing work and residence permits viable for the whole of the EU to make it easier for skilled workers to move around.

Commissioner Frattini told a press conference in Brussels that "the time has come for choosing a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach and to first hear the views of all relevant actors involved".

The Green Paper will serve as a basis for transparent discussions, involving institutions in the EU and civil society in member states, on common rules for admitting economic migrants without impinging on the responsibility of member states to decide on the numbers of immigrants to be admitted.

The Commission will organise a hearing on the issue next July and incorporate the findings of the whole debate in a policy plan by the end of this year.

Mr Frattini said: "This green paper does not contain pre-cooked solutions. Rather it poses the right questions."

As the EU moves towards a common policy on asylum and immigration, individual member states retain national control over many issues. Anti-immigrant sentiment in some member states has rendered discussion over this issue politically sensitive.

At the same time, demographic change and a decline in the number of workers in the same member states have made such discussions unavoidable. Europe is already facing an increased shortage of workers due to the aging of its population.

The Commission is estimating that, at present immigration rates, the number of working-age people in the EU will fall by 20 million between 2010 and 2030. It therefore sees the need for some form of importation of labour in order to allow Europe to maintain its economic growth.