The EU debates on illegal immigration

The meeting of EU ministers in Tampere prompts the daily's Europe correspondent Peter Winkler to comment on their goal of establishing a common EU immigration policy. "With the exception of a few isolated cases, the frequently cited solidarity between the states of Europe has not become reality. One reason for this is that several member states still have a bone to pick with two of the countries most affected by immigration. These are Italy and Spain, which recently implemented so-called "regularisations" giving amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and undocumented foreigners, without consulting either their neighbours or the EU. The problem is that those who have been granted amnesty are now free to immigrate to other Schengen countries, and could therefore become a problem in countries that had no say in their regularisation. In the opinion of several ministers from other member states, these regularisations have played a key role in turning Italy and Spain into magnets for illegal immigration. In other words, they only have themselves to blame."

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