Brussels, 09/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 9 October, the president of the European Union, José Manuel Barroso, paid tribute to the victims of the Lampedusa tragedy who drowned in an attempt to reach Italy on Thursday 3 October, saying that the European Union must not turn away its head from the immigration tragedy of Lampedusa,and the problems facing Italy must be seen as a problem for the whole of Europe. The shipwreck cost the lives of at least 300 people, possibly as many as 390. The president of the Commission was accompanied in his visit to the tiny island of Lampedusa off the coast of Italy by Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, where they were booed by locals. On 8 October, EU interior ministers in Luxembourg agreed that a new safety and security mission was needed in the Mediterranean, but no tangible measures have yet been decided.
At a conference with Italian prime minister Enrico Letta, Barroso said that the EU would provide an extra €30 million to help Italy manage the arrival of immigrants on its shores. It has already received €137 million in European funding in 2013 to the same end, but on Wednesday afternoon, the Commission was unable to provide any details of the new funding.
The Frontex agency in Warsaw said on Wednesday that it will be giving Italy €2 million extra in funding after the Lampedusa tragedy, announced Frontex' vice-director, Gil Arias, explaining that the agency had decided to re-distribute two million euros from its budget for Italy by prioritising it over other missions in order to extend the Hermes operation until November. Hermes covers Lampedusa and surrounding islands. Arias said that the extra aid for Italy had been decided before the Lampedusa tragedy, even though Frontex has almost run out of funding for 2013.
Extra financial and other resources are what Commissioner Malmström came to ask the EU interior ministers for in Luxembourg on Tuesday. Without making any formal pledge, they said they agreed that the details of any future mission would be discussed in detail.
In a press release, the Greens/EFA at the European Parliament expressed disappointment at the outcome of the meeting in Luxembourg, which was the polar opposite of what the president of t he European Parliament had called for, wanting the Lampedusa tragedy to mark a turning point in the EU's migratory policy, yet the JHA Council simply decided to clamp down on crime and illegal immigration through Frontex, explained Hélène Flautre (France). She said the strategy is basically the same - a saved immigrant is a rejected immigrant and the Commission's announcement of a big safety operation from Cyprus to Spain is very abstract in the light of the failure of the Hermes operation off the coast of Lampedusa and a lack of any practical objectives or operational details.
On Thursday, the European Parliament will vote on a report on the Eurosur European border surveillance system for preventing such disasters, which is meant to help the member states reduce the number of non-EU nationals entering the EU illegally. It should help them monitor their external borders and increase their surveillance and border control bodies' reaction capacities, explains the Commission. Jan Mulder (ALDE, the Netherlands), the report's rapporteur, has himself pointed out the limits of Eurosur, which although it will improve the situation, cannot fully deal with the problem or prevent people coming to Europe.
President Barroso said in Lampedusa that this type of event must not happen again in Europe and greater efforts are needed, requiring greater cooperation among the member states. The French president, François Hollande, said on Wednesday that in a few days time, he would suggest a policy to his European partners for dealing with the Lampedusa tragedy. (SP/transl.fl)