Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s centre-left government has launched a new bid for compromise with the conservative opposition on a bill to regulate immigration.
In a revamp of its bill, the government is proposing the upper age limit for children permitted to join foreign parents in Germany be 12 years, compared with 16 at present and the 18 years which prevails in most European countries.
The Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, which previously decided the age should be 14 years, have now resolved to "make a move" towards the Christian Union (CDU/CSU) parties, Greens party co-chairperson Claudia Roth said Monday.
The gesture is aimed at securing support for the bill in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament which represents the German regional states.
The government can reckon on a majority in the lower house, the Bundestag, where the bill is expected to be put to the vote Friday. However it does not have a majority in the Bundesrat.
Only if a state like Brandenburg, with an SPD-CDU coalition, comes out in favour of the bill can it pass. But Brandenburg's CDU interior minister, Joerg Schoenbohm, said Monday that an "historic compromise" was now possible.
The Bundesrat is scheduled to vote on the bill March 22.
The bill is the first attempt since World War II to simplify and unite German immigration legislation.
Chancellor Schroeder wants to get it passed in order to keep it from becoming an issue the conservative opposition could exploit in campaigning for the September 22 general election.
Schroeder and Interior Minister Otto Schily want targeted controls which will allow well-qualified foreigners to enter Germany to work, arguing that certain branches of the economy such as information technology need them.
The CDU/CSU has until now rejected government appeals for a negotiated consensus on immigration, saying the proposals do not go far enough in limiting the influx of foreigners.
AFP