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European Parliament to vote on Cameron's migration rule change bid

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 15.01.2014 11:02
A Polish MEP has initiated a debate and vote in the European Parliament against British Prime Minister David Cameron's attempt to change migration law within the EU.

Members
Members of the European Parliament to vote on EU migration this week: photo - EPA/Patrick Seeger

The motion, which is being debated today and will be voted on Thursday, was brought by MEP Jacek Protasiewicz, a member of the centre-right Civic Platform party, which is part of the christian-democrat European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.

Following recent statements by PM Cameron on limiting benefit rights to EU migrants in Britain - where hundreds of thousands of Poles went to live and work after Poland joined the EU in 2004 - the motion notes that in the light of the upcoming European Parliament elections in May, "freedom of movement of EU citizens has become the subject of some party political campaigns," with "high-ranking European politicians trying to undermine the right of freedom of movement".

The motion "strongly disputes the position adopted by some European leaders calling for changes and restrictions on the free movement of persons" and calls on MEPs to "fully reject any proposal to limit the number of immigrants from the EU as being contrary to treaty principles on free movement of persons."

David Cameron's Conservative Party is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the parliament, as is Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party, whose leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has strongly opposed the British government's attempt to change EU migration law.

It was announced on Tuesday that Cameron has shelved a report by the UK's interior ministry on EU immigration until after the May elections.

The report is being prepared by Home Secretary Theresa May, who said last month that there was “abuse of free movement” rules within the EU and that some migrants were attracted by “access to benefits".

The Financial Times is reporting that the home secretary has been struggling to back up the statement in the report with data. (pg)

tags: Poles in UK
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