“Common basic principles for policies for the integration of immigrants: that’s the main message contained in the “European guidelines for promoting integration” approved by the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs Ministers in Brussels last week. The document that represents a political response to the latent tensions between immigrants (in particular Muslims) and local communities, which erupted in the recent serious incidents in Holland starts out from the conviction that “integration implies respect for the fundamental values of the EU”, without prejudice to the “safeguard of the practice of different cultures and religions as guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU”. If on the one hand the document of the Council does not oppose the right of member states to combat forms of “extremism and fundamentalism” in conformity with the “inviolable European right and national laws”, on the other it invites government to foster the economic, social and political integration of immigrants through the granting of the right to vote “at least at the local administrative level”, the teaching “of the history, institutions and language of the host country”, access to employment through the recognition of the qualifications in the countries from which immigrants come and the launching of “targeted” training programmes able to mediate between the development of skills and the needs of the labour market. For further information, consult the website: http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/doc_centre/immigration/integration/doc_immigration_integration_en.htm#handbook.
