Spain satisfied with French migration plan changes

Spain said today y it was satisfied with changes to French proposals for a common EU policy of migration, having previously expressed concerns about plans to ban mass legalisations of illegal immigrants.

Under the proposals France wants to see adopted in October, the 27 EU states would pledge to boost the fight against illegal migration and expel more illegal migrants, and confirm commitments for a common asylum policy by 2010.

Spain had insisted any pact cannot rule its massive 2005 "regularisation" of 700,000 illegal immigrants as against the law.

"I am satisfied with the changes, it is important to have a common policy on immigration," Spain's Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told reporters as he and his EU counterparts met in Cannes to discuss French plans to harmonise EU policy.

Spanish media reported that Spain and France reached an agreement on changes to the text during a visit by French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux to Madrid on Thursday.

"We have managed to have accepted certain elements of our policy on immigration," Rubalcaba said, without elaborating.

Spain has been concerned about the angry reaction of South American countries, whose leaders slammed new EU rules that allow authorities to detain illegal immigrants for up to 18 months and ban them from re-entry for up to five years.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez said the law recalled "times of xenophobia" and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Europe had "legalised barbarity". He has threatened to stop selling oil to European states if they apply the new law and to cancel investments in Venezuela by European countries.