Slovenia wants EU-wide system to track immigrants

Introducing an EU entry/exit system to track immigrants and furthering discussions on illegal immigration with third countries will be priorities for the Slovenian presidency, according to Dragutin Mate, Slovenia’s interior minister.

Mate also said there needed to be a "balance" of focus on the EU’s external borders to the east as well as those to the south.

Slovenia is determined to press for consensus among EU member states on a system to track people entering and exiting the Union, which the European Commission is to propose in February. "The main goal I believe in the future must be that the technology at the borders helps us [let] bona fide travellers pass through the borders very quickly but…that we can stop the people who have a different approach," Mate told European Voice.

Migration from Africa via the Mediterranean and Atlantic will remain a priority but a ministerial conference in March will also look at further involving Frontex, the EU’s border agency, in eastern illegal migration flows. "We cannot forget the eastern borders and possible illegal migration flows from that area. We want to have some reasonable balance," he said.

Migration continues to feature high on the EU’s agenda, with government leaders to discuss at their summit tomorrow (14 December) various aspects of legal and illegal migration. They are to set a target of the end of 2008 for agreement on the Commission proposal to impose criminal penalties on employers that hire illegal migrants. They will also refer to taking "work forward" on introducing an EU ‘blue card’ system, to make the Union more attractive for highly skilled labour.

But joint discussions among employment and interior ministers last week (6 December) revealed that divisions remain on both proposals. Some countries, such as the Netherlands, feel the requirement in the proposal on penalties to inspect 10% of employers for the presence of illegal workers would not help root out the problem since illegal workers tend to be more concentrated in specific industries, such as construction or agriculture.

Other countries, such as Germany and Austria, are wary of the Commission gaining a role in setting entry requirements for workers, as set down in the blue cards scheme. "While we are in favour of better co-ordination on legal migration, the question of who enters a country or who is allowed to work there is for the member states," said one EU diplomat.

Also, some member states do not agree with the Commission’s view that the EU needs to attract skilled labour from outside the EU.

Introducing an EU entry/exit system to track immigrants and furthering discussions on illegal immigration with third countries will be priorities for the Slovenian presidency, according to Dragutin Mate, Slovenia’s interior minister.