COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT - Accompanying the COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION on Policy priorities in the fight against illegal immigration of third-country nationals SUMMARY IMPACT ASSESSMENT {COM(2006) 402 final}{SEC(2006) 964}{SEC(2006) 1010}
Date: 2006-07-19
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU migration policy, cooperation policy, illegal migration, migration control, third country

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 19.7.2006 
SEC(2006) 965 

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 

Accompanying the 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 

on Policy priorities in the fight against illegal immigration of third-country nationals 

SUMMARY IMPACT ASSESSMENT  

{COM(2006) 402 final} 
{SEC(2006) 964} 
{SEC(2006) 1010} 

Lead Directorate General:DG Justice, Freedom and Security  

Work Programme Reference: 

2006/JLS/005 

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Illegal  immigration  into  the  EU  poses  a  challenge  in  particular  for  the  credibility  of  the 
common European and the Member States’ immigration policy. Council and Commission 
therefore  have  repeatedly  emphasized  the  importance  of  measures  to  combat  illegal 
immigration over the last years. 

Given  the  scale  of  the  challenge,  a  comprehensive  approach  is  pursued,  addressing  all 
aspects  of  the  migration  chain  such  as  cooperation  with  third  countries,  border  security, 
human trafficking, secure documents, illegal employment, regularisations and return policy. 

Problems  identified  are  the  continuous  pressure  of  illegal  immigration  into  the  EU,  an 
imbalance in distribution of illegal immigration between Member States, humanitarian crises, 
exploitation  of  illegal  immigrants,  and  a  number  of  push-factors  in  countries  of  origin. 
Subsidiarity issues are addressed in this section as well. 

Against  these  identified  problems,  the  principal  objectives  of  EU  policy  are  to  reduce  the 
amount of illegal immigration, thereby respecting fundamental rights; to avoid humanitarian 
crises, and to reduce criminal activities linked to illegal immigration. 

In order to assess how to achieve these objectives several options were identified within the 
different areas for action. These options are assessed against a number of possible impacts: 
on  illegal  immigration,  on  criminal  activities  linked  to  illegal  immigration,  on  fundamental 
rights,  political  impacts  at  EU  level,  impact  on  third  countries  of  origin  and  transit.  For 
proportionality reasons, the assessment is preliminary at this stage. 

Resulting  from  the  above  comparison,  measures  were  chosen  that  are  both  effective  to 
meet  the  objectives  to  reduce  illegal  immigration  and  opportunities  for  criminal  networks 
that profit from illegal immigration in full respect of fundamental rights, and can realistically 
be expected to be implemented in the short to medium term. 

For the areas where a choice existed between different options, the preferred options are the 
following: external  borders: enhanced use  of biometric  data  (option 2); secure travel and 
ID  documents:  development  of  common  guidelines  (option  2);  illegal  employment: 
specifically  targeting  the  employment  of  illegally  staying  third-country  nationals  (option  2); 
regularisations:  studying  the  impacts  of  regularisations  (option  2);  return  policy:  further 
stepping up cooperation (option 2); carriers liability: evaluation of adopted measures (option 
2). 

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