Brussels, 09/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) signed a framework agreement on Tuesday 8 November that will enable swifter action to be taken in emergencies, by simplifying administrative procedures, and long-term coordination of strategies and joint projects. Commissioners Cecilia Malmström (Home Affairs) and Andris Piebalgs (Development) signed the agreement with IOM Director General William L. Swing, says the Commission in a press release. The agreement will apply to all programmes, projects or operations administered by IOM and financed or co-financed by the European Union across a range of areas, such as legal labour migration, illegal migration and the resettlement of refugees, the latest programmes to be triggered after hostilities broke out in Libya.
After this framework agreement, the two parties are, according to Swing, looking to put in place a long-term “strategic partnership”, the aim of which will be to strengthen the framework agreement with further centralisation of project decisions and launches.
The EU is one of the IOM's main global partners and one of its major contributors. The EU trails behind the United States and Canada, however, in terms of numbers of war refugees resettled within its borders. (SP/transl.rt)