European Commissioner for Justice, Security and Liberty Franco Frattini, in liaison with the Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council, has announced the inclusion on the order of the day of the Council of Ministers of Justice at the end of February of a draft law concerning the introduction of a “mutual system of information and early warning” on immigration. The idea of resuming the debate on the mechanism of “common early warning” was taken following the controversial unilateral measure of the Spanish government to “regularize” an unspecified number of clandestine immigrants without consulting its European partners. In spite of the fact that in conformity with the existing legislation on illegal immigration “member states have exclusive responsibility” in this field, the government of Luxembourg and the Commission have stressed that “experience shows that measures of regularization only stimulate illegal immigration” and that mutual information and early warning are necessary for “important decisions that cannot be taken by one or two member states”.
