EU leaders to approve migration pact today

European anti-racism lobby groups have hit out at the new migration pact, which EU leaders are expected to endorse today, deeming it as focusing more on security than the integration of immigrants within the EU.

"At a time when the EU has called for a renewed commitment to a common immigration policy, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) calls on all the European institutions to ensure that the commitment to fundamental rights becomes a foundation stone of a Common European Policy on Immigration and Asylum," the network said in a statement issued during the leaders' summit in Brussels. According to the European umbrella organisation, representing 600 NGOs, the pact's primary focus on the control of illegal immigration through a security approach, places the EU in danger of undermining the fight against racism.

"ENAR is also concerned that integration is not presented as a two-way process but focuses only on the obligations of migrants." The organisation has called upon the EU to remedy the situation and to put fundamental rights and anti-racism at the core of the pact that will set the EU's policy on migration and asylum for the coming years.

Sources close to the French EU Presidency admitted that the migration pact is not featuring prominently on the summit's agenda as EU leaders are more concentrating on the prevailing financial crises.

"However, the pact will be given the final nod by EU leaders, kick-starting the next process by the Commission to translate the main trusts of the migration pact into action," the sources said.

The new pact, agreed upon by Justice Ministers last month, was deemed as an important step forward by the Maltese government in its policy to seek EU help in dealing with the influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.

For the first time, EU member states have committed themselves politically to give a helping hand to countries such as Malta that are facing disproportionate arrivals.

Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat has criticised the government for accepting that the burden-sharing mechanism will only be on a voluntary basis, rendering it ineffective.

Council sources had explained that the voluntary aspect of the new resettlement mechanism, still to be established by the Commission, was the only option available on the table because the EU does not have the legal competence to order member states as to how many asylum seekers to take into their territory.