Brussels, 06/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU home ministers, meeting in Brussels on Thursday 5 December, were briefed on the European Commission's proposals put forward the day before on the follow-up to be given to the Lampedusa disaster, in which over 360 migrants lost their lives on 3 October this year. It came as no surprise that the member states took no specific decisions but did welcome the communication, Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said after the meeting.
We would recall that the Commission document suggests 38 measures based on 5 main themes, ranging from reinforced surveillance of common borders, assistance to the southern countries, development of legal and protected ways for entering the EU to cooperation with third and transit countries called upon to prevent any departure of migrants from their coasts. A little earlier that day, France, via its home minister, Manuel Valls, had said it backed most of Malmström's proposals and especially those which contributed to dealing with problems “at source” and preventing vessels from taking to the water towards the EU. The French minister said, however, that he was opposed to Malmström's proposal to work on humanitarian corridors that would allow visas for the EU to be issued from third countries. On Wednesday, the commissioner suggested consideration be given to that course of action during the development of future European policies on justice and home affairs, to be discussed in June 2014. Valls, however, felt it was “not the right answer”, and insisted on the need to be “cautious in messages sent” and not to create an influx of migrants. The Swedish commissioner had, on Wednesday, already anticipated this attitude on the part of member states, aware that the question of humanitarian visas issued outside the EU remained a sensitive one and did not arouse very much enthusiasm among the member states. Austria, one diplomat said on Tuesday, also had bad memories of the practice, as the country had in the past seen over 80,000 Pakistanis arrive after they had been granted similar visas. The European Council should resume debate on these proposals in December. In the meantime, the Swedish commissioner did, on Thursday and Friday, find several reasons to state her delight - Norway and Finland having announced that they would again take in Syrian refugees. Germany, Malmström was pleased to tweet on Friday, also announced that it would take in 5,000 Syrian refugees. On Wednesday, the commissioner had in her communication proposed that member states should receive aid of €6,000 for every refugee resettled. (SP/transl.jl)