UPDATED 4.30 p.m.
The European Parliament today adopted an own-initiative report by MEP Simon Busuttil on a Common Immigration Policy for Europe, by 485 votes in favour, 111 votes against and 19 abstentions.
Welcoming the adoption of the report, MEP Simon Busuttil said that the text charts the way forward for the fledging European immigration policy which had been moving in fits and starts over the past decade.
“What we have today is a fragmented policy. My report calls for a coherent policy,” Dr Busuttil said.
The report warns that “unless Europe moves urgently ahead in forging a common immigration policy, it risks being overtaken by events.” It adds that “dramatic events around us have proved that we are already late.”
The key points of the report include the following:
· The human tragedy that is taking place as a result of illegal immigration must be stopped once and for all.
· The burden-sharing mechanism envisaged in the Immigration Pact must be rapidly implemented and transformed into a binding and permanent instrument.
· Emphasis on returns must be strengthened and third country nationals who are illegally staying must leave or be returned.
· All EU agreements with third countries must include chapters on immigration.
· The Frontex agency must be further strengthened both in terms of its financial resources as well as in terms of its capacity to act.
"Efforts must be redoubled to fight against organised crime and human trafficking. During today's sitting the Socialist and Green groups in parliament still managed to insert a reference calling for migrants to have the opportunity to vote, a clause resisted by Dr Busuttil and the EPP group.
Dr Busuttil tabled an alternative resolution to the report which removed this reference, but this did not go through since the Socialists and Greens voted against it.
“I did my best to remove the unnecessary call for voting rights for migrants, which in any case remains exclusively a matter for individual countries to decide. However, the Socialist majority prevailed on this,” Dr Busuttil said in a statement.
“In Malta the Labour Party shuns immigration and plays the veto card, but in Brussels the Socialists play a different tune and want to give migrants voting rights,” he said.
LABOUR REACTION
The Labour Party in a reaction to Dr Busuttil's statement said the Nationalist MEP was being politically dishonest by trying to give the impression that the Labour MEPs had voted in favour of illegal immigrants being given the right to vote.
This was completely untrue and the Labour MEPs had voted against the granting of the right to vote to illegal immigrants.
Indeed, the Labour MEPs had always voted in the same way as the PN ones.
The Labour MEPs in a declaration with their vote said they did not view the EU Immigration Pact as being sufficient for Malta and the Busuttil report did not make a clear and direct reference for mandatory burden sharing. They also insisted that they were against the granting of the right.
The PL also pointed out that while the PN tried to give the impression that it had a strong voice within the EPP, the recent dispute on migration was with Italy, where the biggest governing party was a member of the EPP.