Migrant rights advocates have called on Justice Minister Dermot Ahern to press his EU colleagues to deal fairly and practically with undocumented workers.
Proposals to stamp out illegal immigration are being put forward to a ministerial meeting in Cannes by France, which hopes other member states will adopt them in October.
The plan envisages increased co-operation in expelling more illegal migrants and making commitments for a common asylum policy by 2010.
The European Commission estimates there are up to 8m illegal migrants in the EU. More than 200,000 were arrested in the first half of 2007, with fewer than 90,000 expelled.
Migrant Rights Centre Ireland says regularisation should be part of the response from today's meeting because the EU itself acknowledges that it needs immigrants in order to survive.
The Migrant Rights Centre says that regardless of temporary economic downturns, EU discussions have acknowledged that immigration will continue to be essential for the continent's future.
The centre says the EC has already highlighted that EU states will need not just highly-skilled workers from abroad but also workers in lower-paid, absolutely necessary sectors such as care work and services.
The centre's Director, Siobhán O'Donoghue, quoted EU projections that by 2050, for every four dependent people inside its borders there will be just three at work.
She said this means additional workers will be needed from outside to union to generate tax revenues and to support the increasing number of older and very young Europeans.
Highlighting that undocumented migrants are an essential part of our own workforce and not disposable objects, she likened their contribution here to that of the Irish undocumented in the US.
And she urged Mr Ahern to bring to bear on the EU discussions the experience he has gained campaigning for the regularisation of undocumented Irish migrants in the US.
