The EU elections are coming!

http://www.neurope.eu/articles/94145.php


Every five years, a small number of Europeans participate in the process that legitimises, in part, the European Union: voting for members of the European Parliament. Postulating that perhaps not many Europeans know how the different political parties stand on relevant subjects, New Europe researched their websites to see what their official views were on the subject of immigration, asylum, and border controls.
Most of the parties agreed that there should be burden-sharing and Community- wide policies, but what exactly the policy was and how far it should be carried out differed in some interesting ways. Its important to note that these come directly from the parties and are their unchallenged claims about what they stand for and what their platform, policies, agenda, and beliefs are.



A man passes election campaign posters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in the town of Vidin on the Danube River, May 13, 2007, a week before Bulgarians, for the first time, got to vote for Members of the European Parliament


European Peoples Party
The EPP-ED Group calls for:

- Firmly combating illegal immigration;

- Strengthen FRONTEX;

- Solidarity and cooperation with third countries;

- Better organisation of legal migration;

- Enhanced asylum coordination, including solidarity with those Members States (like Malta and Cyprus) most exposed to this phenomenon;

- Enhancing integration and intercultural dialogue;

- Securing Europes external borders.

- The need to promote higher birth-rates should be considered. Immigration is no long-term solution to cope with the consequences of demographic change;

- The EPP-ED supports the creation of a European Corps of border guards in order to wage what it calls an effective fight against illegal immigration, crime and trafficking in human beings;

- It feels that a rapid asylum procedure based on the definition of refugee given in the Geneva Convention needs to be set up in the framework of the Common Asylum Policy.

- It wants a harmonised asylum procedure limited in time to 6 months

- Readmission agreements between the EU and third countries

A coherent visa policy will allow better control of the entry of third country nationals.

- Tackle the flow of immigrants at the roots. It is essential to increase co-operation with the countries of origin and transit, in particular with the development of a long-term prevention policy through economic development projects and information campaigns on the real possibilities of settling in Europe.

Socialist Group
- Wants humane answers to the challenges of legal and illegal immigration. The answer is not ghettos or xenophobia, but real reforms to ensure integration, fight illegal migration, illegal work and human trafficking, and work to create a better life for people in poorer countries outside Europe;

- Promotes burden-sharing and a common European policy in the field of immigration while respecting the competencies of the Member States

- Want an integration policy to achieve inclusive citizenship and representation, including rights and duties for all citizens

- They say they will propose to promote action at the appropriate levels (local, regional, national or European), such as language or cultural training

- Wants to strengthen cooperation with the countries of origin, including on readmission procedures, while promoting the economic and social development of those countries

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
- The ALDE believes that immigration policy should include admitting economic immigrants while taking into account the reception capacities of the Member States

- Exactly what kind of economic immigration is needed should be discussed further

- The Member States would determine what kind of immigration they need, with these needs being annually reported in an EU-wide database

- Pending clear information sharing between origin and transit countries, more legal avenues for legal migration should be established

- Supports the reunification of families

- Facilitate remittances back to the country of origin

- Wants to promote development of democracy, Rule of Law, and human rights in the countries of origin.

- Should be burden-sharing concerning immigration, perhaps even backed up by legally-binding legislation

- There should be an EU-wide asylum policy

- Wants to ensure that origin countries play an active part in helping to manage the migration flows, prevent illegal immigration by informing potential migrants of the risks incurred in the case of illegal immigration and set up effective information campaigns on the possibilities for entering and/or working legally in the EU Member States.

- Some sort of multinational European force should be created to complement FRONTEX and be ready to assist the national border guards.

- ALDE believes that integration should be considered as a two-way process that presupposes both the immigrants willingness to, and responsibility in, integrating into their host society and EU citizens willingness to accept and include immigrants.

-Voting rights are, however, not regulated, but as part of a better integration into society ALDE encourages the Member States to grant the right to vote in local and municipal elections to third country nationals and stateless persons permanently residing in the EU for more than five years.

Union for Europe of the Nations
The UEN, being a eurosceptic party, doesnt have much on record when it comes to the issue of immigration. The three points below were recovered from its statute on its website and were the most relevant information this reporter could find on its immigration stance. The bulleted sentence states that the UEN is against illegal immigration, but the UEN does not elaborate on how it would do this.

- A Europe which co-operates effectively to combat international terrorism, organised crime, illegal immigration, trafficking in human beings, pedophilia, sexual abuse and sexual mutilation;

The Greens/European Free Alliance
- Promotes the idea of the Blue Card

- Rejects a hierarchy of rights for migrant workers

- Rejects a focus on border controls

- Promotes focus on increased channels of legal migration

- Promotes addressing problems in the domestic situations in the countries of origin

- Insists that employers comply no less scrupulously with statutory employment-law provisions when dealing with those holding third-country nationality

- Supports the Commissions current proposal for a directive on the right of reunification of families which will, in certain circumstances, entitle both labour migrants and asylum-seekers to bring in adult children, parents and grandparents

- Rejects any attempt to violate international law standards by reducing to six years the maximum age at which children may be brought in

- Family reunification must moreover include same-sex partners.

Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left


- Rejects the creation of a strong European border guard

- Highlights the positive aspects of immigration

- Proposes immigration and asylum policies that maintain human rights, are based on the free movement of individuals, include improved rights to asylum, ensure equal treatment in terms of economic, cultural and social rights and recognises civic and political rights, including voting rights and eligibility for local and European elections

- Against selective immigration policies, particularly quotas

- Rejects the practice of collective expulsion

- Wishes to shut down government detention centers for migrants

Independence/Democracy Group
Researching immigration policies for the Independence/Democracy Group also proved pretty futile, likely because it is explicitly against the concept of the European Union. Voting for this party would mean that you want the European- level institutions to have no say whatsoever in your countrys immigration policy. According to its statute, 3. Respect for traditional and cultural values

- Peoples and nations have the right to define and protect their own traditional, ethical and cultural values. The Ind/Dem Group rejects xenophobia, antisemitism and any other form of discrimination.

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FAAKHER E CHAAMB