Brussels, 27/08/2014 (Agence Europe) -European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström announced on Wednesday 27 August that Frontex will help Italy with a new “Frontex +” operation that will, in the short term, replace the Italian Mare Nostrum operation.
This operation will merge two Frontex missions that are already up and running, operations Hermes and Aeneas. It is expected it will be launched in November, as soon as the resources are in place. The Italian Mare Nostrum mission will gradually be wound down by the time Frontex takes over. An appeal for other member states to take part will be made so that they can also contribute to these efforts. The Commission will also examine increasing the Frontex agency's budget, which currently stands at €90 million a year. The scope of Frontex +, however, will be more limited than that of Mare Nostrum and it will have to tackle the wave of migrants arriving on Italy's shore and the many boats lost. Just under 300 more migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean during the course of last weekend.
According to the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees, 2,000 people have died in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year. Italian Home Affairs Minister Angelino Alfano and Malmström were expected to discuss the future of the Mare Nostrum operation and possible support from the Frontex agency. The efficient but expensive Mare Nostrum operation by the Italian navy, which patrols the waters between Italy and Libya from where most of the ships set out, “cannot be extended for a second year”, the Italian minister has already warned. On Tuesday 26 August, a technical meeting took place in Rome that brought together representatives from Frontex, the Commission and the Italian government to discuss issues such as the details of an intervention by the European agency. According to La Stampa, “a new rescue mechanism would involve different countries. A Frontex of European Mediterranean countries, with resources and manpower from Spain, France and Italy could be launched, with funding from northern European countries”.
Last October, following the tragedy on 3 October, which saw 366 migrants die in a single night, member states and the Commission indicated that they would examine ways of helping Italy. This promise was repeated at the beginning of July, in Milan, at an informal meeting, even though Malmström stated that Frontex could not replace Mare Nostrum immediately. EUROPE will return to this subject tomorrow. (SP)