Spaans voorzitterschap benadrukt belang goed gecoördineerde grenscontroles (en)

Celestino Corbacho, Spanish Labour and Immigration minister. EFE

-What are your ministry's priorities during the Spanish Presidency of the EU?

Specifically, at the JHA Council in Toledo I would like us to approach the phenomenon of immigration in a comprehensive manner, as it cannot be viewed from a national perspective but rather it should be seen from an overall European perspective. We must support regular, legal immigration and, at the same time, make Europe a place of integration so that all those who have migrated become integrated and share citizenship.

-How do you intend to achieve greater integration between immigration and integration policies?

Europe must commit to three courses of action: The first is to strengthen entry controls into Europe. If we want legal immigration, this means we must have strong border controls that are well-coordinated between all countries. The second stems from the fact that immigration is a reality in the EU…and here the challenge is to create an integration policy through the member states within a general framework. In order to achieve this integration we must promote schools as the core element that best integrates and provides the best training for citizenship and the future.

The third course of action must be aimed at strengthening cooperation with countries of origin. If we really want immigration to be controlled so that it is regular and legal then border controls are not enough, we must also get the county of origin involved. And for a county of origin to become involved, it needs to see that Europe is also committed to its present and its future.

-Moreover, you aim to make progress with the common immigration policy and the single work permit.

Europe has a natural tendency to be a single market not only in terms of goods but also in terms of work, and we should work in that direction

The Spanish Presidency will hold bilateral meetings and talk to the Commission and the relevant commissioner to see if we can make progress in the direction of unifying criteria on the issue of a single permit. There is no unified criterion and there are divergent opinions on this directive at present, but we believe that we can slowly manage to achieve consensus and conciliation between the countries that, like us, support this directive under specific conditions, and the other countries that still have reservations.

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  At such a complicated time for the EU in terms of employment, how can you bring the interests of immigration and the labour market together?

The first condition is that immigration must always be linked to the labour market. It is obvious that at a time of crisis like the present, when Europe is in economic recession and there are job losses, immigration is being contained because Europe has to be more inward looking in order to meet the needs of people who have lost their jobs. Yet we should not lose sight of the future. We will overcome this crisis and when Europe returns to economic growth it will once again need immigration. So we must take this opportunity to start laying the foundations so that when we return to growth in the economy and once again have stronger immigration quotas, we can do so on a basis of legality.

-The policy on unaccompanied minors will be another important issue.

Yes, and I want to acknowledge the major progress made under the Swedish Presidency; in the Stockholm programme there is a special mention of this issue and a specific mandate to develop a programme on unaccompanied minors. Up to now this type of immigration was more commonly seen in Mediterranean countries and was not part of overall European concerns. The programme on minors was included in the final meeting of the Swedish Presidency. Spain greeted this very favourably as we are directly affected by this issue and it is one of the programmes that we are going to promote during our Presidency.

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  Video: Interview with the Spanish Minister of Inmigration, Celestino Corbacho