French leadership of European Union to focus on immigration
The rotating leadership of the European Union has now been turned over to the French government starting on July 1st 2008. The French government has commented that they plan to use their time to focus on immigration reforms including strengthening their laws that help reduce illegal immigration as well as policies surrounding free movement from any European Union nation to another.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been calling for what he calls “European pact on immigration and asylum” believing that it could help to harmonize the countries. The pact that Sarkozy is referring to is a work in progress and has been presented to all nations inside the European Union. It will be formally announced this week.
Sarkozy commented that he was asking the European union to take on a more selective immigration policy and be more willing to deport any immigrant that is caught which do not have the proper documentation to be in that country. He recently commented about what he was asking that he did not want “a closed Europe but nor do we want a Europe that stands by powerless before unchecked waves of immigration.”
The French president plans to deport over 25,000 illegal immigrants out of France every year. This policy has many human rights activists concerned that it will apply pressure to the police which could lead to abuse of the policy. Minister for the interior of France Brice Hortefeux commented about the deportations that they are “a sign that conforming to the wishes of our citizens France is controlling its immigration.”
http://europa.eu/
Popularity: 8%
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.