European Commission immigration issues
01 July 1991
A European Commission document on immigration, believed to reflect the more liberal wing of the immigration debate in Europe, has been set aside for the time being because of the likely difficulties in achieving agreement on it. Proposals are believed to include the gradual easing of controls over Europe's 16 million or so resident non-EC nationals, to achieve eventual parity with EC citizens over the right to move around the Community in search of work. It is known that certain countries, notably Britain, would strongly oppose such a proposal.
At the same time, a draft Convention on the same issue, due to be ready for signature in June, has been deferred until the second half of the year, for the same reason. This Convention was to have followed the Dublin Convention - a document outside Community competence but signed by all twelve EC countries -in order to regulate the movement between EC countries of third country nationals.
The failure of the European Commission means that Europe still has no official immigration policy. Some member states insist that the whole issue is outside Community competence and can and should only be dealt with by inter- governmental agreements such as the Dublin Convention and the Schengen accord. The Schengen Agreement now covers eight countries, with Spain and Portugal due to sign on 25/26 June, but its insistence on the removal of internal frontiers means that Britain and Ireland are expected to hold out against signing to the bitter end, perhaps creating a "two tier" Europe, whose core would be free of internal borders but not its periphery. The Schengen provisions, however, are not generous to third country (non-EC) residents of Schengen territories, granting them the right to travel outside their country of residence for a maximum of three months in six, but not allowing them to move around the territory in search of work or to change their country of residence - in contrast to the position for EC nationals. It had been expected that the Schengen agreement would be adopted by the European Commission as a model for an EC-wide immigration policy,
but since the Dutch State Council issued a negative advice on the Schengen agreement (see Statewatch May/June) splits between the hardliners and the more liberal national authorities have begun to open up.
Migration Newssheet June 1991.