French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Thursday opened the 20th Franco-Spanish summit meeting in Paris, reported dpa. The central issue at the summit, which was also attended by the two countries' foreign, defence, interior and justice ministers, was expected to be illegal immigration. Sarkozy had previously criticized the Spanish government's decision to grant residency permits to some 700,000 illegal immigrants in 2005. Late Wednesday, the French president told deputies in the National Assembly, "Why do we have a Schengen Agreement (on eliminating internal borders in Europe) if we have no common immigration policy?"
