EPP GROUP STUDY DAYS IN VIENNA
EPP-Group: Safeguarding the future
4 March 1999

MEP Mr Hubert Pirker

Migration
Solutions for the security and stability of Europe

Background

Migration pressure in the direction of the EU is increasing.
Legal migration in the form of asylum applications, flight from war, work migration and family reunion is increasing as well as illegal migration, through illegal border crossing, over-staying, or after a failed asylum procedure.

A significant population growth, economic hardship and political crises could be mentioned as factors causing migration.

• population growth in Africa: 1997: 758 mio., 2025: 1,500 mio.
  
• the political trouble spot in former Yugoslavia set off a wave of refugees. Austria alone received 70,000 Bosnians.
  

Effects on the European Union

• 3 mio. refugees are, according to the UNHCR, currently in the EU
  
• Asylum applications increase dramatically in the Member States close to the crisis situations: asylum applicants in Austria 1997: 7,000; 1998: 13,800
  
• different burdens of asylum applicants on the Member States; factors especially influencing the situation are the closeness to the trouble spot, third-country nationals already present in the country, the location of external borders and national legislation.
  Asylum applicants 1998 per 10,000 inhabitants: CH: 57, NL: 29, B: 21, AU: 17, S: 15, D: 12, F: 3.7.
  
• 1.5 mio. migrants come each year to the Member States of the EU. Austria 1985: 360,000 foreigners, 1998: 730,000 foreigners against 8.1 mio inhabitants.
  
• at least 200,000 illegals are each year channelled into the EU.
  
• after drug dealing, the smuggling of persons is the most profitable branch business of organised crime: 2,000 to 15,000 Euro per person; 1 billion Euro per year total turnover.
  
• In 1997, Europol dealt with 171 cases concerning illegal smuggling networks and 51 cases concerning trade in human beings;
  
• import of potential for conflict - violent actions through PKK-members in the Member States of the Union.
  

Given the mounting concern and fear of people in the Union, which are especially set off by illegal migration, organised crime and the insufficient control mechanisms for legal migration, political corrections are absolutely necessary.

The integration capability of the Member States should not be overstretched
Union citizens expect of the Union's political bodies differentiated measures, ranging from the management of work migration according to the requirements and possibilities of the Member States or the Union, via the common regulation of asylum policy and measures for the temporary protection of war refugees, through to a more effective control of external borders, the fight against illegality and smuggling, as well as asylum abuse.



Catalogue of measures to maintain security and stability
through a reform of migration policy

1. Measures to control work migration

• standardization of the rules for the arrival of work migrants and their family members on the basis of feasability and needs of the Member States
  
• factors such as an existing job vacancy, housing and education possibilities for children should, in the interest of integration, be taken into account as a prerequisite.
  

2. Measures for the creation of a common asylum policy
Here, the following factors should especially taken into account:

• the basic right to seek asylum,
  
• harmonised minimum standards for procedures and benefits,
  
• transparency and speed in the treatment of the asylum request,
  
• common application of the regulation concerning safe third countries and the regulation concerning a safe country of origin,
  
• the integration of asylum seekers should have priority over the arrival of new workers.
  

3. Measures for the temporary protection of migrants (war refugees)

• according to the basic principle of solidarity between the Member States, burden- sharing concerning the people should immediately be aimed at,
  
• programmes for re-integration should be reinforced.
  

4. Protection measures complementing the refugees status

• creation of a common framework of law
  

5. Border protection and protection from abuse

• creation of a coherent concept for border checks,
  
• harmonisation of the standards for the protection of external borders,
  
• realisation of the EURODAC system for finger prints on the basis of the contents of the Convention and Protocol,
  
• implementation of the Action Plan against organised crime in the areas of smuggling and trade in human beings,
  
• optimized use of EUROPOL against smuggling and trade in human beings.
  

6. Co-operation with applicant countries

• the programmes, made available to the applicant countries, concerning migration, the fight against organised crime and border protection, namely ODYSSEUS, FALCONE, STOP and OISIN should be vigorously carried out.
  

7. Measures for the reduction of migration pressure

• political cooperation between the countries of origin and the host countries,
  
• increase in economic cooperation with the countries of origin,
  
• interventions in conflict regions.
  

Export of security before import of risk!The comprehensive and differentiated proposals for a reform of the overall migration policy through realistic solutions developed by the Christian Democrats (EPP) strongly contrast with the utopian demands made by the coalition of Socialists, Liberals and Greens. Generally, these do not take into account the realistic possibilities of the European Union, and the interests and feelings of the Union citizens.

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