The initatives include:

- A Communication on a "Dialogue for migration, mobility and security with the Southern Mediterranean countries".

The Commission proposes to establish Dialogues on Migration, Mobility and Security with the North African countries. The Dialogue should encompass all migration-related aspects of the EU's future relationship with the region. Mobility Partnerships will be agreed to better manage legal mobility opportunities between the EU and the North African countries. These partnerships will be tailor-made together with each partner country and in cooperation with EU Member States. They should help countries to make better use of their labour potential for instance by providing assistance in developing recruitment programs, skills recognition or by assisting the returned migrants who want to help building their country of origin. Such structured cooperation should also help Member States to match their labour market shortages.

Of course sufficient safeguards must be in place for the facilitation of movement. Within the Dialogue our partners will have to ensure that they will take all effective measures to prevent irregular migration and will allow for the return of their citizens who do not have the right to stay in Europe. The Commission has already made first contacts with Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks to start these Dialogues, and hopes to engage with other interested partners in the near future.

- The Annual Report on Immigration and Asylum (2010)

The Annual Report on Immigration and Asylum (2010) highlights the main developments at the EU and national levels in the field of migration last year. It points, for example, to the measures taken to assist Greece in managing its external frontiers, which involved the deployment by FRONTEX of border guards from other European countries on the Greek land border with Turkey, as well as the extensive assistance given to Greece by the Commission and Member States in the ongoing complete overhaul of the country's asylum system. To remedy the shortcomings identified, the Report contains political recommendations namely with regard to the strengthening of border control, the prevention of irregular migration, the facilitation of legal migration, the development of a common European asylum system, the integration of third country nationals, and the development of the external dimension of the EU's migration policy.

- A proposal to amend EU Regulation 539/2001 on visas

Visa Policy is a crucial component of an efficient European migration policy. The current EU legislation on visa policy does not allow for swift decision-making. The procedure for lifting or introducing visa obligations is done through the ordinary co-decision procedure and can therefore take up to a few years. The proposed amendments foresee the introduction of a safeguard clause that would allow, under certain exceptional conditions, for the temporary reintroduction of the visa requirement for citizens of a third country. Such a mechanism would provide the EU with a tool, to be used only in exceptional circumstances, for off-setting any possible serious adverse consequences of visa liberalisation, and in particular the arrival in the EU of a large number of irregular migrants or asylum seekers whose claims are not well-founded. The proposed amendments will help increasing the confidence of the Member States in the visa governance and future visa liberalisations.

For more information

See MEMO/11/328, MEMO/11/329 and MEMO/11/330

More on the components of a wide ranging policy on migration (Commission's Communication on Migration of 4 May): IP/11/532 and MEMO/11/273

More on the European Commission's response to the migratory flows from North Africa: MEMO/11/226