WIREDGOV

Because of their proximity to host communities, local and regional authorities are on the front line when it comes to policies for integrating immigrants from outside the EU. With its adoption recently of the opinion by Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos (EL/EPP), member of Aigaleo Municipal Council, on The New European Agenda for Integration, the Committee of the Regions wishes to highlight the key contribution of local authorities to the framing and implementation of integration policies. It also calls for a strategic partnership between the European Commission and European networks of cities and regions.

Immigration is a reality in all the Member States of the European Union. It is even more in the spotlight since the Arab spring, which prompted new population movements towards Europe. The extent of this migration brings home the urgent need to design effective policies to support the social, economic and cultural integration of immigrants into host communities.

Although responsibility for integration policy lies mainly with the Member States, it is local and regional authorities who implement it. "Local and regional authorities play a decisive role in creating the right conditions for third-country nationals to access a whole range of public services, including above all education, healthcare, employment and housing. Cities and regions are the linchpin that enables immigrants to develop a strong and constructive connection with the host society, making a real contribution to developing a climate of trust and maintaining social cohesion." This was the view of Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos, rapporteur for the Committee of the Regions (CdR) opinion on the new European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals adopted by the European Commission.

The opinion commends the position of the Commission, which emphasises the key role of local and regional players in ensuring full involvement of immigrants in all aspects of local civic life, and therefore proposes channelling more Union funding in future towards promoting integration at local level. According to the rapporteur: "Integration policies must be framed using a bottom-up approach that is in touch with the issues affecting immigrants, and implemented with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders - at local, regional, national and European level."

The mayors and presidents of EU regions therefore call for a strategic partnership to be set up between the CoR and the European Commission and European networks of cities and regions, in order to draw more on the experience of local authorities, to exchange best practice and to coordinate initiatives more effectively.

Among the proposals formulated in the opinion, CoR members call on the Member States and local authorities to facilitate recognition of migrants' professional skills, draw up language programmes suited to the needs of specific groups of immigrants and encourage local businesses to improve their corporate social responsibility. They also recommend that the CoR should play a bigger role in the activities of the European Integration Forum created by the Commission.

Finally, they would like the CoR to be fully involved in fixing the Union's priorities in relation to financial instruments to support integration, and in evaluating the results of integration programmes, so as to help develop more targeted approaches and support more coherent integration strategies.

Further information:

• Opinion on The New European Agenda for Integration

For more information, please contact:

Nathalie Vandelle

+32 0)2 282 24 99

+32 (0)2 282 20 85