EU leaders adopt vast new immigration plans

On the 16th of October, European Union leaders agreed on the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, containing sweeping new immigration guidelines focusing on skilled workers rather than refugees. “This pact was adopted unanimously. Europe now has a real immigration policy,” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, after hosting the EU summit in Brussels. The pact, a document of political intent but not binding laws, sets out principles for managing migration, fighting illegal immigration and forming partnerships with countries people leave or travel through to get to Europe. It also seeks to make border controls more effective while building a better asylum policy, with refugees increasingly obliged to apply for asylum status from outside the EU. With some 220,000 applications just last year, immigration will be based on criteria like Europe’s reception capacity in terms of its labour market, with an emphasis on controlling would-be immigrants rather than encouraging people to come. The pact also insists that nations take the interests of their neighbours into account when formulating immigration, integration and asylum policies, because the 27-nation bloc “does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants hoping to find a better life” within its territory. The EU says it has been working hard to find a balanced path to the subject, attempting to stem the flow of clandestine migrants, while at the same time trying to encourage the immigration of highly-skilled workers. They pledged to make the pact the subject of annual debate.