Britain,
Ireland and Denmark have opted out from EU legislation on immigration
and are not bound by the new rules.
The
remaining 17 EU member states are behind schedule.
"The
commission regrets this delay in transposition and the legal
uncertainty for third-country nationals resulting from it," the
EU executive said in a statement.
"It
will take the appropriate procedural steps according to its
power."
On
Sunday, January 15, Pope Benedict XVI of the Vatican called for an end
to discrimination against legal and illegal immigrants across Europe.
He
told thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square that global
migration had to be embraced as it developed respect for other
cultures and creeds.
Demographic
Balance
New
European statistics show that immigration is holding off the
demographic decline in Europe as the natural population growth is
slowing across the 25-nation bloc, reported France Presse (AFP).
According
to estimates published by the EU's statistics office Eurostat, all of
Europe's heavyweights, except for France, now depend on immigration to
keep their populations stable or growing.
The
bloc's total population, which stood at 461.5 million on January 1,
grew by around 2.0 million last year compared to 2.3 million in 2004.
Most
of the increase was due to net migration, more than half of it to
Italy and Spain.
In
2004, Italy's population grew for the first time in 15 years, an
increase which the national statistics institute attributed to
immigrants.
But
the country's birth rate remains the bloc's second-lowest after Spain,
which passed the 44 million mark in 2005.
The
Spanish population growth was due largely to a wave of immigration
from Morocco, Romania, Colombia.
Net
migration into the EU, slightly down compared to a peak in 2003, was
expected to stand at around 1,691,000 for the entire bloc, with three
quarter of the new immigrants heading to Spain, Italy, Britain and
Germany.
