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Eurocities, a network of 130 major cities in Europe, has called upon EU institutions to give municipal authorities a greater say on immigration issues. Migration affects mainly urban areas and local authorities want to have a "clearly defined role as partners". They also would like to see a change the emphasis of the debate to highlight the economic benefits of migration. They cite an EU social indicator report that calculates that Europe will have lost 65 million of its inhabitants by mid-21st century, based on current demographic trends, which will have a significant impact on the workforce.
Amongst their proposals is an extension of funding for community aid schemes for EU citizen migrants. Currently there is a fund of €825million for programmes such as language training for migrants who are non-EU citizens, but Eurocites believes that EU citizens "fall between the cracks". The Eurocities policy paper is in response to the "Stockholm Programme", a 5-year European Commission plan to be agreed on in the autumn, on how to deal with immigration, asylum and integration.
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