​​​​The European Committee of the Regions is calling for cities and regions in the EU to invest more time, money and effort on integrating newcomers to the EU. In recommendations adopted on 8 December in the opinion drafted by Karl Vanlouwe, EA Group political coordinator in the CIVEX commission, it specifically advises them to focus their efforts principally on improving immigrants' language skills, familiarising them with European values, helping them to enter the labour market and to become more active in local communities.

"Europe is becoming more and more diverse, not least because of the current migration and asylum crisis," said Mr Vanlouwe. "We therefore need to fully integrate legal newcomers into our society. Language skills are a priority in this process. But languages skills are not enough. To strengthen social cohesion, we have to focus on community-building too. Through tailor-made civic integration, we should ensure that newcomers become full, participating members of society."

Mr Vanlouwe, who is a member of the Flemish parliament, said that "European norms and values are a crucial part of civic integration and we should defend them actively. Integration should be based upon rights and obligations, both for newcomers and the host community."

CoR Press release:

http://cor.europa.eu/en/news/Pages/Comprehensive-reform-of-migration-system.aspx