Brussels, 22/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - As the EU28 come together for an emergency meeting in Brussels on Thursday 23 April, to define measures to tackle the recent tragedies in the Mediterranean where more than 1,000 migrants have died since the beginning of 2015, the leaders of the main pro-European political groups at the European Parliament called on the EU28, in a joint statement on Wednesday 22 April, to develop a genuine European policy that involves all member states.
Although the member states are expected, in principle, to endorse the 10-point action plan proposed on Monday 20 April by the Commission (see EUROPE 11299), the modalities and particularly funding relating to financing and resources to be allocated to the Frontex agency still remained to be discussed on Thursday. Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany), Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) believe that this European solution should involve all the European institutions and agencies and be “based on solidarity (…) and take into account all the different dimensions of the problem”.
The three leaders will concentrate on four points. Firstly, as regards sea rescues, the EU should ensure that member states guarantee “adequate” search and rescue missions - the Triton operation launched in November should, for example, “be capable of operating on the high seas”, although the Triton patrol mission is currently limited to 30 miles off the Italian coastline (as opposed to 100 miles off the coastline under the Mare Nostrum mission). The three leaders also emphasise that this was the case under the Italian Mare Nostrum operation.
The European Frontex agency coordinating the Triton operation with the Italian authorities should also be given greater resources and financial means to operate its missions and fulfil its mandate. The three leaders do not, however, specifically mention in their letter a possible change of mandate that would expand the Frontex mission to rescue operations and it is essentially a surveillance instrument for common borders. The three leaders also regret that the resources currently available to Frontex are only lent by member states and that this is still only on a voluntary basis.
One source at the EPP was angry that “the only new reform that could be done on Frontex is that we make this provision of vessels by the member states to Frontex obligatory, but we get the feeling that we are far from getting this political support”. The source also explained that this joint statement must be seen “as an appeal to member states to finally take action… We can do nothing as a European institution, it is the member states that have all the cards in their hands. We are not calling for new instruments to be invented, they already exist, it is just that it is time for the member states to put them into practice.”
This observation also applies to the second focus of action identified by the three EP leaders: the offer of temporary protection to these refugees, despite the fact that Frontex has warned that between 500,000 and 1 million people would attempt to cross the Mediterranean over the next few months. In order to respond to the problem of people having to leave their countries and not being able to return there in the immediate future, there is an urgent need to consider several options such as the introduction of a binding solidarity mechanism, increasing the number of humanitarian visas issued, an emergency mechanism for resettling refugees between the EU28 and the activation of the “temporary protection” directive (2001/55/EC), explained the three leaders. This directive was drawn up following the influx of Kosovans into Germany during the Kosovo war in 1999. It was again referred to in 2011, during the Arab Spring. The Commission and the member states, however, have still refused to activate it. In 2011, the Commission said that the conditions for doing so had not been met. In 2011, the EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL and ALDE groups again called for this directive to be activated for Syrian refugees but they have still been unsuccessful in their demands, point out the three leaders from the EP.
The third point is that the three groups are calling for efficient action against traffickers, in cooperation with third countries. Member states will have to work more closely on this subject with Europol, Eurojust, Frontex and the EASO Office for supporting asylum. Cooperation with Libya's neighbours is also advocated. Finally, the three groups say that the European summit should see whether they will be able to speed up responses to requests for asylum (appeals made to decisions in a two month timeframe were mentioned) and to possibly study the option of issuing humanitarian visas from representations in third countries. The source from the EPP said that “it is important to pass on these messages to the Council, so that member states decide to take action and that we are all entirely in agreement on the contents of this statement”.
Historic opportunity. According to the NGO Amnesty International, the European leaders meeting in Brussels have a “historic opportunity” to put an end to the spiral of human tragedies. According to a new Amnesty International report, the decision by the Italian authorities to put an end to the Mare Nostrum operation last November has contributed to the increase in the numbers of deaths at sea. If the figures of the most recent incidents are confirmed, 1,700 people have died at sea since the beginning of the year, “100 times more than over the same period in 2014”, explained Amnesty. The myth that Mare Nostrum made the problem worse is also undermined by the figures that “show that the number of refugees and migrants attempting to cross into Europe by sea, has increased since the end of the operation. 2015 has already seen a record number of refugees and migrants attempting to cross the sea, with more than 24,000 arriving in Italy”, explains the NGO.
The head of the civil liberties committee at the EP, Claude Moraes (S&D, United Kingdom) said that the EP had not wanted Mare Nostrum to be scaled down and he hoped that the European leaders would now fulfil the 10-point action plan and agree to launching a vast search and rescue at sea operation and welcome the refugees “with compassion”.
Stepping up cooperation with Africa. Ahead of the summit, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker had a meeting on Wednesday with President of the African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (see other article). This meeting had been planned for a long time and enabled the two parties to recommit to fighting against the trafficking networks and promoting economic development on the continent. The two leaders also had lengthy discussions about Libya and called on the different Libyan parties to reach a political agreement. Juncker said: “We need a reliable discussion partner in Libya”. (Solenn Paulic)