Commission to match EU labour needs with African work demands

The European Commission will appeal to member states to provide it with details of their labour shortages so they can match them with Africans wanting to work in Europe. The Commission is also to put pressure on national governments to provide equipment to Frontex, the EU’s border agency, to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to the Union’s southern sea borders.

The first centre to identify workers will open in Mali early this month and Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security, will urge interior ministers during their meeting in Brussels on 15-16 February to participate in the programme to match European labour needs with African labour demands.

"I am going to ask the Council of Ministers to establish quotas, then the European Commission can negotiate an agreement with the country of origin," he told the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee last week.

But mindful of member states’ sensitivities about setting labour quotas, he added: "We are not going to impose quotas on member states." Germany, in particular, has been reluctant to give any role to the EU in managing legal migration.

The Commission’s move is an attempt to address the rise in the number of immigrants making their way to Europe from Africa, often taking perilous journeys in fishing boats. Spain bore the brunt of the influx last year with more than 31,000 people reaching the Canary Islands, a figure six times higher than the previous year. About 6,000 people died trying to make their way to the islands in 2006.

Tourism, public works and agriculture were the main areas where labour shortages existed in the EU and the plan would see workers returning to Africa when such seasonal work was finished, said Frattini. Workers under this scheme could also go on to work in other member states without having to reapply for permits from outside the EU.

Centres would also open in Senegal and Mauritania to process skilled workers interested in such employment, he said.

The commissioner said he expected a positive response at next month’s meeting to letters he had sent to interior ministers requesting helicopters, boats and surveillance equipment for Frontex. "If not, a naming and shaming exercise will be possible," he said. The letters refer to a "pooling system" where "appropriate technical equipment is made available to the maximum extent possible".

Frattini told Parliament work had to be done in the spring to prepare for the expected influx of immigrants by summer. "Member states need to show solidarity more than they did in 2006," he said.

The commissioner said Frontex was planning to start patrols around Spain’s Canary Islands next month to help stop immigrants making their way to the EU.

Frattini also criticised the "rigid mandate" the Council gave the Commission to negotiate the repatriation of illegal immigrants to Morocco, which is causing a delay in reaching agreement. The mandate meant Rabat would have to take back all immigrants who passed through the country to get to Europe and not just Moroccans. "If member states have agreements on bilateral levels which don’t impose this clause why would they [Morocco] accept it from the EU?" he asked.

The European Commission will appeal to member states to provide it with details of their labour shortages so they can match them with Africans wanting to work in Europe. The Commission is also to put pressure on national governments to provide equipment to Frontex, the EU’s border agency, to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants to the Union’s southern sea borders.