Irregular immigration is one of the priorities of the Finnish presidency and it is expected to have a common EU policy by 2010, said Finish Ambassador Pauli Antero Makela yesterday.
Mr Antero Makela was speaking during a public consultation dialogue on the Finnish presidency of the EU organised by Forum Malta fl-Ewropa.
The EU needs to look at the full range of options available for the problem of irregular immigration and agree on a common solution to the problem, he added.
“Reinforcing borders is just part of the solution,” said Mr Antero Makela. “The EU needs to take concrete action while protecting those in need.”
Finland’s aim is for the Council to adopt conclusions providing guidelines for the future and will also aim to get political guidelines adopted committing the member states to ensure more effective control of the EU’s external border.
Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Frendo said immigration was a major issue for Malta and the recent conference held in Morocco was a good start towards working for solutions.
He called for more effort to put the message across and for stronger dialogue between the EU and African countries.
“Immigration is not an issue of territorial waters,” said Minister Frendo. “EU countries have to realise that the two main routes used by immigrants through the central and western Mediterranean eventually leads to their own states.”
He pointed out that this issue is crucial to how the Maltese people will look at the EU.
“Although it is a uniform problem, there is no uniform solution to irregular immigration,” said Dr Frendo.
During its presidency, Finland will concentrate on the challenges now facing Europe, such as globalisation, improving competitiveness, ageing population, climate change and security, said Mr Antero Makela.
Improving the quality of EU regulation will give a significant boost to European competitiveness and sustainable development.
The Finnish ambassador said greater transparency is one of the key issues that Finland will tackle and will increase the trust and confidence of EU citizens. “Finland will strive to make the EU’s institution and administration simpler and more transparent, in accordance with the principles of good governance,” he said.
Minister Frendo praised the work achieved by the Austrian presidency on the issue of transparency and said he hoped the Finnish presidency will pick up on the good work.
"The Finnish presidency will lay the groundwork for the future presidencies of the EU,” said Mr Antero Makela. “It’s time to consider what we want the EU will be in 10 to 15 years and start working on it.”
The rest of the world will not wait for the EU to catch up with globalisation, and the EU must join in, he added.
Mr Antero Makela said Finland will work to improve the EU’s weak performance and start working on effective decision making.
Dr Frendo said that Finland is in an excellent position to deal with the issue of energy with Russia and said the EU should do its best to stabilise the situation in the Middle East and prevent it from getting worse.