BERLIN, Sept 14 (Reuters) - German Economy Minister Michael Glos has rejected a European Commission plan to encourage legal migration into Europe to ease labour shortages caused by a declining, ageing population, a German magazine reported.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said on Thursday he would present proposals to member states on Oct. 23 aimed at reversing a trend whereby skilled migrants are going to places like the United States and unskilled workers to Europe.

Speaking for Germany, which has been reluctant to open up its labour market to non-European Union citizens as well as workers from the new EU member states, Glos dismissed the idea.

Germany cannot "massively take in workers simply because we need them at the moment," Glos was quoted as saying on the website of German magazine Der Spiegel on Friday.

He added that there was "a large reserve of unused labour" in Germany, which has an unemployment rate of nearly 9 percent.

Germany announced last month that it would open its doors to engineers from eastern Europe from November to help compensate for a skills shortage in the sector that risks holding back economic growth.

Frattini's plans involve issuing "blue card" residence permits to skilled workers, entitling them to work in a member state for an initial two years and to move into a second member state after two or three years' residence in the first EU state.

Current EU president Portugal will host the first EU-Africa summit in seven years in December, where migration issues will be central.