HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, March 23, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Despite the introduction of tighter immigration laws, the six biggest EU countries agreed on Thursday, March 23, to weigh drafting an integration contract in which new immigrants would agree to respect Western values.

"We agree that experts from our countries must examine the option of presenting an integration contract to new immigrants," German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters after meeting his British, French, Italian, Polish and Spanish counterparts, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He said the contract would inform new comers "of the rights and obligations relevant to the process of integration."

Schaeuble maintained that such a contract should not be seen by foreigners as a "threat" but rather an attempt to "integrate" them.

The interior ministers gave few details of the proposed contract, saying the idea -- floated by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy -- would be developed by an expert working group.

The latest 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.

According to 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.

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.

Clarke (R) hinted that immigrants who broke the contract could be deported. (Reuters)

Asked if immigrants who broke the contract could be deported, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke told Reuters Television: "That would be an issue that could arise."

He said the ministers agreed that "the values of our societies -- democracy, respect for other faiths, free speech, the rule of law, free media and so on -- are values which we would expect everybody wanting to settle in these countries to respect."

Michel Gaudin, a senior French official at the meeting, said the key points were that prospective immigrants should know the local language, be familiar with their new country's institutions and have the financial means to support themselves.

Many European countries have recently tightened their immigration laws, largely seen as targeting Muslims.

Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk announced on March 17 that would-be immigrants would have to watch a film featuring a topless woman and gay men kissing to test their readiness to learn Dutch values.

And two German states have proposed detailed questionnaires with questions such as "What do you know about the Holocaust? Define Israel's right to exist? Are you offended when you see two homos kissing one another?"

Britain has also proposed a new "points system" that will favor highly skilled immigrants such as doctors.

The six countries also agreed to intensify cooperation to fight illegal immigration by stepping up coordination of security services.

"With the support of EUROPOL, joint investigative teams are to be deployed to combat smuggling and trafficking of human beings or related crimes," they said in a final statement.

Europe's immigration struggle was highlighted in September when African immigrants tried to break into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the north coast of Morocco in hope of a better life across the Mediterranean.

Fourteen people were killed -- 11 of them shot dead -- and Spain was deeply embarrassed when Morocco clumsily tried to dispose of the problem by bussing hundreds of would-be immigrants into the desert.

The so-called G5 states -- France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain – are already organizing joint repatriation flights taking immigrants back to their homes countries.

The Guardian reported Thursday that Spain was stepping up patrols off Mauritanian shores in pursuit of would-be immigrants amid reports that 1,000 people have already lost their lives during desperate quest for Europe.