Pérez Álvarez (PPE-DE). – (ES) Mr President, we have voted against the report on immigration, integration and employment by Mr Moraes, despite the fact that it is an excellent piece of work. This is due to the intransigence of certain Members from the Parliamentary Socialist Group who I believe are less concerned about the living and working conditions of immigrants than about making political capital and taking advantage of them for party political reasons.

The competent committee, Employment and Social Affairs, given the content of the Communication, ‘immigration, integration and employment’, believed it was not the time to treat the possible right to vote in local or European elections as a key issue, despite the fact that the latter is regulated in the Treaty. Furthermore, this issue is regulated in each Member State. In Spain, in Article 13(2) of the Constitution, and the reciprocity principle laid down in the friendship and cooperation treaties with Chile, Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay.

Also unacceptable is the automatic regularization proposed by the European United Left, in its Amendment No 13, for all those who lack residency authorisation. This would be equivalent, Mr President, to inviting illegal immigration, and, within a short space of time, to creating, in the receiving States, a situation just like the one the immigrants arriving in Europe are trying to escape from.

If only we could receive everybody who wanted to come. Since this is not possible, we must receive as many people as we can in the spirit of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union: ‘Human dignity is inviolable. It must be respected and protected’.

The Group of the European Peoples’ Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats would have liked to have voted in favour of the Moraes report, because we are concerned about the living and working conditions of immigrants in the European Union: their salary, their occupational health, their work. Because we want their integration and that of their families and children, because we are concerned about the situation of immigrant women, because we are in favour of intercultural coexistence in communities, cities and work places. It is a shame that the intransigence of certain members of the Parliamentary Socialist Group and the desire to make party political capital have prevented the excellent report by Mr Moraes from receiving the vote its quality merited.