Writes Mr Ioannis Michelakis, Minister of Interior

 

The Informal meeting of Ministers for Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) is taking place in Athens on 23-24 January. Τhe meeting will give the opportunity to the Ministers of the Μember States to exchange views on issues of the JHA area that are among the priorities of the Greek Presidency. Formulating the future strategic guidelines in the JHA area is one of these priorities.

 

The operational and legislative objectives of the EU in the area of Justice, Freedom and Security are set out in successive multiannual programmes, the last one being the Stockholm Programme. As this programme is coming to an end in 2014, the Greek Presidency focuses on the formulation of the future EU objectives in this area, aiming at their adoption by the European Council next June.

 

During their meeting on the 24 January, the Interior Ministers are invited to present their proposals for the future EU policy in the area falling under their competence. Building upon the efforts of the previous Presidency, the Greek Presidency will work towards the synthesis of Member States’ views, while also putting forward its own suggestions for the future guidelines of the Union’s policy in the area of Home Affairs.  

 

Concerning, in particular, legal immigration of third countries’ citizens to the EU and their integration in European host societies, the Presidency identifies the following challenges for the future: 

• Developing legal migration policies that will correspond to the specific needs of the Member States’ national labour markets. It is considered of utmost importance that we examine ways for making best possible use of the labour force already available in the EU, that is, Member States’ citizens, as well as citizens of third countries legally residing in the EU. In addition to that, Member States’ need to engage in a discussion concerning the development of flexible systems for the admission of foreign labour force, as a supplementary means of responding to the specific needs of national labour markets.   

 

• Adopting policies for fostering social cohesion and combating racism and xenophobia. The Presidency will work towards better implementing the Common Basic Principles for Integration, which always remain relevant. We will examine whether these Principles need to be enriched, in order for the Member States to respond more efficiently to the challenge of legal migrants’ integration and to enhance their social cohesion. The following would be the main axes in this field: education (with an emphasis on language learning), closer cooperation with countries of origin (on issues such as the information of potential migrants concerning the risks related to illegal migration, as well as opportunities for  legal migration) and combating negative messages and policies that might intensify racism and xenophobia.  Providing information to migrants on their rights and obligations and ensuring “equal opportunities” for participation in host societies are also considered as crucial. 

 

In addition, the Presidency wishes to highlight the following major challenges for the development of the future overall EU policy on migration and asylum: 

• Promoting and implementing the principle of solidarity, with the aim to ensure fair sharing of burdens among Member States, taking into account the important and disproportionate pressures that Member States at the external EU borders have to deal with.

 

• Enhancing EU cooperation with third countries of origin and transit of migrants, as an important dimension of the integrated management of the migration phenomenon 

 

The Presidency is already reviewing Member States’ suggestions on the abovementioned issues and hopes to contribute substantially to the formulation of future strategic guidelines for the Home Affairs area that will respond to both the Member States’ expectations and to the current challenges. 

 

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The first major Ministerial meeting of the Greek EU Presidency takes place in Zappeion Megaron in Athens on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 of January. In this article, the Minister of Interior, Mr Ioannis Michelakis, presents the main topic that the Ministers of Interior will be discussing on the 24th of January and highlights the key challenges for the future development of EU policy on legal migration and integration, in the framework of the broader area of Home Affairs.