[Watch] EESC president calls for change in immigration policy

EESC president Henri Malosse • Video Ray Attard

The European Economic and Social Committee president Henri Malosse said that the EU needed to change its policy on immigration, whereby the burden of irregular immigrants should be shared by all member states and not just the country of their arrival.

Malosse was speaking to the press at Dar l-Ewropa in Valletta at the start of his second day of a three-day visit to Malta.

“A solution to this problem will only be found if there is pressure coming from individual member states the EU parliament citizens and other EU institutions.

Malosse said that it was not necessary to find one common policy, explaining that different countries used different methods to integrate legal migrants and cater for irregular migrants but there was a need to form “a chain of good practices”.

Malosse said that he had met with both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and President of Malta Marie Louise Coleiro Preca during separate visits yesterday, when specific island policies were discussed.

“The EESC is favour of islands and small countires seeking new routes of investment while preserving their identity,” he said, adding that it was his belief that the IIP scheme was a case of national competence.

"The EU should not be an umpire where everything is decided at the top," he said.