By IPS Correspondents
MADRID, Jan 7 2000 (IPS)

Only a rise in the number of immigrants entering the European Union (EU) can compensate in the next few years for the steady drop in labour power in the bloc, which threatens to cause serious economic and social problems.

In 1999, the population of the EU grew by slightly less than one million people, but the number of births only outstripped deaths by 266,000. The rest of the growth was due to the entry of 717,000 immigrants, according to a report released Friday by the EU office on statistics, Eurostat.

On the other hand, experts with the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) reported that by 2025, the EU would be home to 35 million less people than today – a problem when 159 million new workers will be needed to maintain the present labour structures.

The rise in life expectancy in the bloc means more money will be needed to cover the cost of pensions, while the number of workers paying into social security systems is shrinking.

UNFPA director Josep Chamie told the Madrid daily ‘El Pais’ in statements published Friday that the need for Europe to open its doors to immigration was inevitable, if the welfare state was to be preserved.

Chamie pointed out that population growth in the region was predictable, because death rates would change very little and shifts in birth rates were unlikely.

Fifty years from now, there will be two pensioners for every active worker in Europe, if the present average birth rate remains steady as experts predict. The ratio today is four to five.

But the EU is not prepared to open its doors to immigrants. On the contrary, it is determined to close them even tighter, and open them only to reduced quotas of temporary workers.

One example of that trend was what occurred with a new law on aliens approved in Spain on Dec 22.

Up to a few days before that date, parliament was debating a bill drawn up by all of the political parties. But at the last moment, the conservative governing People’s Party (PP), invoking EU accords, tried to amend the text to implement tighter controls on immigration.

But the mass mobilisation of non-governmental organisations, trade unions and human rights groups made sure the proposed changes were blocked, and the law was approved in its original form, despite the votes against it by PP lawmakers.

For centuries, Spain has been a source of emigrants.

And today, officially registered immigrants account for just 0.7 percent of its population, compared to two percent in Britain, four percent in Sweden and 6.6 percent in Germany.

Spain has long touted its position as a link between Europe and Latin America. But it is only home – officially – to 127,000 Latin Americans, compared to 142,000 immigrants from Africa and 290,000 from the rest of Europe.

The centre-right government of Prime Minister José María Aznar insists that Spain’s doors must remain closed against immigration, and says that in order to make sure that happens it will resort to a regulation of the new law which hinders enforcement of the law itself.

Government officials have repeatedly announced that intention, despite the clear need for labour power in the productive sector.

Juan José Alvarez, the head of the Association of Young Farmers of Spain, pointed out that last year the shortage of workers in the countryside was noted more than ever before.

According to Alvarez, the deficit in labour power was equivalent to one million “peonadas” a year. (A peonada is a worker’s temporary harvest-time contract.)

There is also a shortage of construction and factory workers. In the northeastern region of Cataluña, the metallurgical industry of the town of Terrasa had to import skilled workers from Slovenia, and some companies are studying the possibility of moving their factories outside Spain.

Given that situation, admitting or rejecting immigrants is no longer merely a humanitarian or human rights question, but is closely linked to the EU’s economic problems and the survival of the current social structures.

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