Brussels, 14/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 12 October, Italian prime minister Enrico Letta urged his European partners to immediately introduce the “Eurosur” maritime border surveillance mechanism (see EUROPE 10940) and for the European Summit on 24 and 25 October to discuss the recent shipwrecks and loss of lives in the Mediterranean. Letta was speaking on a French radio station the day after a second shipwreck took place between Malta and Lampedusa, causing the death of thirty or so immigrants on Friday. On 3 October, 350 people lost their lives on the coast off Lampedusa, leading Italy and the European Commission to call for solidarity from the member states. We can't go on like this, said Letta, adding that the instruments on the table so far didn't provide a way of solving these tragedies.
The Eurosur system provides real-time information from the different maritime authorities in the EU to ensure better detection of ships in distress so that lives can be saved. There has been a battle with the European Parliament in recent weeks to expand the EU's powers and give it the job of saving life at sea. In a report adopted on Thursday, the Parliament dropped the idea, promoted by the Greens/EFA. The Council of Ministers is holding talks on a draft resolution on maritime operations by Frontex. A source says that at the formal adoption of Eurosur by the General Affairs Council on 22 October, France, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Malta and, oddly enough, Italy are expected to reject the idea of giving the EU greater powers over saving lives at sea. These countries are expected to call for this to remain strictly in the powers of the member states and carried out in line with international conventions.
Although it clearly wants to hang on to its powers when it comes to saving lives at sea, Italy all the same called on Monday 14 October for a strengthening of Frontex (which cooperates coastguard operations carried out the member states), which it wants to see headed by an Italian. The Italian government is expected on Monday to have its interior, defence and foreign ministers organise military and humanitarian action in the Mediterranean. Italy has already deployed 15 ships, 12 of them coastguard and financial police vessels, around the island of Lampedusa.
It is known that 18 member states will start to make use of Eurosur in December, with the others joining them in December 2014. At their meeting in Luxembourg on 8 October, EU28 interior ministers gave the political nod to a taskforce of the European Commission, Italy and other countries where immigrants land, and also to a safety and security mission in the Mediterranean, from Cyprus across to Spain. No details have yet been decided upon in terms of timing or financing. Talks are currently ongoing at technical level, explains the European Commission, which called on Friday for member states to speed things up.
A source explains that a combination of measures were expected by Italy for the medium and long-term. The source said that at the moment, new ships were not being requested of Frontex, but rather merging operations being carried out here and there into a single operation capable of covering all the countries in question. Alongside the talks to be carried out with countries like Libya, where many of the immigrants set sail from, longer-term reflection might be needed on the asylum package and the so-called Dublin Regulation laying down which member state is responsible for processing asylum requests. Italy says it is not trying to get this changed, but there are no effective compensation mechanisms. The problem is the sheer concentration of immigrants in a small section of the EU, and ways must be founding the future to share this out better among countries. The sea route from North Africa to Sicily is one of the major entry points into the EU, particularly for refugees from Syria. Italy hopes the summit of EU heads of state on 24 and 25 October will give an indication of progress on these questions.
The European Commission says that over and above boosting Frontex's resources and preventing would-be illegal immigrants from setting sail for Europe, legal immigration options must be considered, such as humanitarian visas or allowing at-risk people to lodge asylum requests directly with member states' consulates. Ideally, there should be greater investment in finding homes for Syrian refugees in the Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. The Commission says this will all help prevent these refugees from setting sail for Europe in search of asylum. (SP/transl.fl)