Faced with a flood of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants on the one hand and a need for trained, educated workers on the other, European countries are working on a joint immigration policy to replace a hotch-potch of national rules.
European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Antonio Vitorino presented two proposals ahead of this week's European Summit in Nice, where Germany is holding out for the right to veto immigration decisions.
Mr Vitorino demanded an end to 'zero immigration' policies, which have done nothing to halt clandestine migration and have often had to be followed up by amnesties. Spain processed a quarter of a million applications for amnesty this summer, including thousands of mainlanders.
Mr Vitorino called for a common asylum policy laying down minimum standards for granting refugee status and an immigration agreement meeting the needs of European economies with ageing populations and a shortage of skills.
According to estimates from the French Government, the EU will need to find between 50 and 75 million new skilled immigrants in the next 50 years to keep its economy and social security systems functioning.
Mr Vitorino stressed the need to integrate immigrants: Europeans must accept cultural differences, while newcomers must appreciate the importance of democracy, human rights and sexual equality in many European countries.
Governments may secretly welcome the chance to shift responsibility for resolving these moral and political dilemmas on to the European Union. A European deal could be especially helpful if some of the burden could be shifted from major nations of first asylum like Germany or France to countries with no tradition of asylum.
