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EU 2010: An optimistic vision of the future
and eastern fringes. The EU is trying to tackle the root causes of illegal immigration by enhancing economic and political stability in the countries of North Africa, the Middle East and the Caucasus, as well as in Moldova and Ukraine, through Partnership Agreements. These cover trade, aid, technical assistance and regular meetings at ministerial and official level. Countries which fail to meet EU standards on human rights, democratic performance and civil society are liable to lose the benefits of these agreements. To keep out would-be illegal immigrants, the EU gives money to memberstates on its southern and eastern borders to tighten their frontier controls. Europol has had some success in infiltrating the criminal gangs that are responsible for trafficking most illegal immigrants. To gain expertise in this area it has taken on immigration officials and intelligence officers from the member-states. It also makes use of the new Internal Security Information System, which combines the old Schengen Information System and the Europol database. The EU’s eastern frontier is a first line of defence against illegal immigration; the border of the Schengen passport union, which is policed by the European Border Guard (see Chapter 1), overlaps with that frontier in some places but in others acts as a second line. The EU’s Mediterranean members—which now include Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia—have used the enhanced co-operation provisions of the treaties to establish a European Coastguard. A fleet of fast patrol boats, supplied with satellite and signals intelligence by the EU’s Joint Intelligence Committee (see Chapter 5), attempts to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing to the EU’s shores. Although an EU institution that is funded partly by the EU budget, the Coastguard is managed by the Mediterranean countries and they pay for the greater part of its costs. In 2004, when governments finally tackled the problem of ageing populations in an EU framework, interior ministers agreed to relax the provision of work permits for certain categories of skilled labour in short supply. They agreed on EU quotas, divided among the various member-states, for maths teachers, IT specialists, communications engineers, nurses and doctors. Some developing countries are annoyed that many of their younger and more skilled workers are being sucked into the EU. As a political issue, immigration—both legal and illegal— has divided the parties of the right. Hard-line right wingers pander to