Recommendation 2109 (2017)

Migration as an opportunity for European development

Author(s): Parliamentary Assembly

Origin - Assembly debate on 28 June 2017 (24th Sitting) (see Doc. 14335, report of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, rapporteur: Mr Andrea Rigoni; and Doc. 14348, opinion of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development, rapporteur: Ms Petra De Sutter). Text adopted by the Assembly on 28 June 2017 (24th Sitting).

1. The Parliamentary Assembly, referring to its Resolution 2175 (2017) on migration as an opportunity for European development, underlines that in order to ensure that migration into Europe has beneficial consequences for both migrants and host countries, the member States should take concrete measures to optimise the impact of migration on European societies.

2. The Assembly welcomes the important work in this area accomplished by various Council of Europe bodies and institutions, including intergovernmental activities, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees. However, it regrets that there is no intergovernmental body in the Council of Europe to specifically promote Council of Europe standards among the member States.

3. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers consider the feasibility of creating, possibly as an enlarged partial agreement in co-operation with the European Union, a European migration and intercultural development observatory, which would assist Council of Europe member States in the development of strategies, legal frameworks, action plans and specific projects in the field of migration.