A year ago, our government determined that European immigration policy must be one of our Presidency's highest priorities.

We realised we were at a turning point in migration policy for the European Union. With 10 new members and expanded borders, the challenge of managing migration to the benefit of all calls for a coordinated effort we have to take into account all the experience and advice we can gather. We need to make the debate on our migration policy more central in our discussions with the wider public.

Tackling Illegal Immigration

We need to place the issue of secure borders in a wider context. As you can imagine, the issue of secure borders is vital to Greece. We have several thousand kilometres of coastline and, like our Mediterranean neighbours Italy and Spain, we believe the Union must invest more in patrolling our shores and borders.

Illegal migration undermines the faith our citizens have in the rule of law; it enriches criminal syndicates whose actions subvert our democracies; and it challenges our systems of social protection, while turning desperate immigrants into indentured servants.

Every EU member state has a responsibility to work individually and collectively to attack organised people trafficking by collecting and sharing intelligence, by resisting illegal entries through greater cooperation on land and sea border controls, and by regulating more adroitly the employment of unauthorised immigrants.

Realising the Benefits of Managed Migration

But by allowing the debate to become monopolised by illegal immigration by placing all of our collective energy in devising ways to keep immigrants out we have failed our publics. And we have failed to live up to our Union's defining principle as a community of values that celebrates diversity, promotes tolerance and respect for equal human rights.

We must explain to our publics that immigration can help European economies if we manage migration flows well. We must explain that immigrants can enrich our societies if we invest in programmes to integrate them into our societies.

We must explain that immigrants come to Europe not only to improve their lives, but to contribute to the improvement of ours as well they come, for the most part, because our economies offer them jobs that too many of our fellow Europeans are not willing or able to do. And we must reach out to countries in the developing world as true partners in managing migration.

We must see both sides of the coin. There is the problem of illegal migration. But there are also very positive aspects of regulated migration. We need a more balanced debate and more balanced policy. I believe this conference will go a long way in promoting the ideas that can underpin a balanced EU migration policy.

Secure Borders, Smart Borders

The sense of balance we seek is captured in a single notion: That we not only need secure borders, we need smart borders. Borders that welcome the economic immigrants that our societies need, as well as the refugees that our legal obligations and humanitarian instincts oblige us to care for.

For too long now, too many among us in the EU have been denying both the reality of the current situation and economic contributions of immigration to our societies. In that conspiracy of silence, too many of our citizens have been left without responsible guidance about this vital issue. They have become easy prey to the proponents of racial prejudice and hate, who have painted immigrants as lawbreakers and parasites, as social and economic burdens, and as the source of too many of our societies ills.

The Greek Presidency's Rationale

Our government is seeking to bring balance back to the debate for the benefit of all of Europe. Immigration can help Europe. Immigration may not be the answer to all our demographic and economic challenges but there is no answer to these issues that does not include immigration. And we cannot succeed with immigration without investing diligently in integration.

Three principles form the core of our thinking:First, that a thoughtful, balanced, and comprehensive migration policy regime underpins the growth, prosperity, and competitiveness aims of the Union.

Second, that well-managed immigrant selection systems allow a government to acknowledge an economy's demand for immigrant labour, and to address this demand by creating legal routes for foreign migrants. Just this week, the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales released a report predicting that Europe's active population will decline from 331 million today to 243 million in 2050a drop of 30 percent.

Europe's share of the world economy will fall from 22 percent to 12 percent. The report advocates allowing entry to 30 million immigrants by 2020 to sustain Europe's economy. By opening up such legal channels to immigration, the EU can then begin to enlist the cooperation of both countries of origin and transit in a common front against migrant traffickers and illegal immigration networks. This approach stands the only real chance for the migration control initiatives of Seville to have more than a nominal opportunity to succeed.

Third, that by giving third-country nationals the tools to be full economic and social contributors to host societies and thus converting immigrants into social and economic assets, rather than liabilities two critical goals are achieved:

i) Social cohesion becomes more attainable.
ii) Governments buy badly needed breathing space to set up intelligent and thoughtful frontier control and interior enforcement policies and to build public consensus in support of them.