EU Chief Stresses Importance of Combating Illegal Immigration

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, June 22, 2002

EU Chief Stresses Importance of Combating Illegal Immigration

President of the European Commission (EC) Romano Prodi said in Seville on Friday that the issue ofillegal immigration is a burning issue and should be dealt with with great effort.

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He made the remarks after attending the morning session of the summit meeting of the European Union being held in Seville.

Prodi said: "There are good reasons for focusing on illegal immigration, but I do not think we can afford to give the impression that we are turning our backs on the many aspects of the multi-faceted subject of immigration more generally."

Prodi thanked Spain, which is holding the six-month EU rotatingpresidency, for having brought the subject to the summit agenda and for the energy and determination with which Spain has pulled together the complex subject matter involved.

On management of future external frontiers, Prodi noted, the EChas devoted much space to it as a medium-term objective, adding that it is not at all incompatible with the short-term operationalmeasures.

He said it is a pity that the proposal put forward by Spain recently, which includes some general measures to be taken to reduce flow of illegal immigration, was not approved by the ministerial meeting earlier this week.

There are roughly three million illegal immigrants in the EU and about half a million people enter EU territories each year. How to tackle this issue tops this two-day summit meeting in the southern city in Spain.

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