Brussels, 15/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called on member states on Friday 15 November to make tangible commitments to boost the Frontex agency and its sea rescue capacity.
The Commissioner tweeted about this after a shipwreck in Greece cost the lives of 12 migrants, whose bodies were recovered from the sea on Friday morning. Fifteen others survived the loss of their boat off the island of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea.
“It is time to act and concretely support Commission plans to help Mediterranean countries and refugees”, she stated. On the day after the Lampedusa tragedy that cost the lives of more than 300 people, the Commission unveiled an action plan for a wide-ranging operation in the Mediterranean from Cyprus to Spain to supplement the work of the Frontex agency. No detailed commitments or figures have yet been provided by the member states, however. Draft legislation on the work of Frontex and its sea rescue powers is being discussed by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers, but the talks are being held back by a small group of countries in southern Europe, like France and Cyprus, which fear a loss of sovereignty at their borders. (SP/transl.fl)