During the meeting of MEUSAC’s Core Group held on the 26^th September, the Core Group members (representatives of Government, the political parties and the constituted bodies) discussed the European Commission’s Communication on a Proposal for a Common Immigration Policy for Europe: Principles, actions and tools.

As a follow-up to the discussion held in the Core Group a consultation meeting was held on Friday 24^th October between the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Commission’s Proposal, Maltese MEP Dr. Simon Busuttil and members of the Core Group as well as with representatives of NGOs operating in the sector. Dr Busuttil was interested in listening to what these organisations had to say regarding the Commission’s proposals in view of the report he is preparing. The draft report will be finalised by the end of next month, after further consultation with interested stakeholders in Brussels and in Malta. Eventually, the final report will be debated during a European Parliamentary Plenary Session, early next year.

The draft report will be presented during the EP’s Plenary Session in November. Eventually the final report will be submitted to the EP in January 2009 following further consultation with Core Group members.

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Chris Said, Parliamentary Secretary for Public Dialogue and Information and chairperson of the Core Group. Various issues were raised during the meeting of which the need to integrate the immigration issue in agreements with third countries as well as the need for better integration of migrants locally, possibly through education campaigns, demographic problems in Malta, socio-economic problems in the country of origin of migrants, the need to strengthen the EU’s development aid policy and last but not least the need to distinguish between legal migrants, illegal migrants and refugees.

A second follow-up meeting on the European Commission’s Communication will be held in November with the Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, Dr. Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and with senior officials of the Ministry.