CANNES, July 7: EU interior ministers pushed on Monday for a rapid agreement on new guidelines for controlling immigration, rejecting concerns that the plan would create a fortress Europe.

“It is a good proposal for a common position for everybody,” said Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer as he arrived for informal EU talks in the French Riviera resort city of Cannes.

The “European Pact on Immigration and Asylum” sets out principles for the EU to manage migration, fight illegal immigration and help development in poor countries that people are leaving or travelling through to get to Europe.

France, which took over the bloc’s rotating presidency on July 1, wants to have the guidelines wrapped up by October, so they can be endorsed by EU leaders.

“I hope that even today we will be able to reach a political agreement on this pact that could be finalised during the French presidency,” said Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

“It is a plan, a framework for immigration policy that is absolutely necessary for Europe and for the rest of the world,” he said.

Even Spain, which has put up most resistance to the pact and forced France to remove “integration contracts” making immigrants learn the language of their new home, said the document now largely respects its system.

“We are satisfied, we believe that this recognises the major part of our model of immigration,” said Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.

“I can’t see any walls around Europe,” said German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. “There are six million illegal immigrants in Europe. We have to fight illegal immigration and supervise legal migration.”

Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden said: “It’s not about building a wall. Europe alone can decide who should enter.

We should have drawn up a pact like this 10 years ago.” In endorsing the pact — in the same building as film stars are feted at the Cannes Film Festival — the ministers will commit Europe to a new vision of immigration.

The agreement would organise legal immigration based on a state’s needs and ability to welcome people, and combat illegal immigration, ensuring that foreigners who do not have papers are removed.

Refugees will be increasingly obliged to apply for asylum from outside — some 220,000 people did so last year — although the EU will strive to better channel aid to those countries they are fleeing.

The ministers will also pledge to try to avoid handing out residency permits en-masse. Italy and Spain have angered some of their partners by giving papers to some 700,000 people in recent years.

“We can’t leave immigration in complete disorder, it has to be organised,” said EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot.

“Europe should remain open, but we have to have rules. Europe should remain a place of asylum but this has to done in a well organised way,” he said.

EU officials say the pact will set the immigration agenda for years to come.

It will be built on the newly agreed “returns directive”, which obliges states to give residency to illegal immigrants or send them home, and empowers them to detain people for up to 18 months during processing.—AFP