Brussels, 23/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - At an emergency meeting in Brussels following the succession of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, the heads of state or government of the European Union decided on Thursday 23 April to stress their determination and agreed to triple, rather than just double, the monthly budget for Operation Triton, which will be based on the outlines of the Italian operation Mare Nostrum, which was active between October 2013 and November 2014.
On the basis of a monthly envelope of around €2.9 million at the moment, Operation Triton, which is headed up by the agency Frontex and the Italian authorities, will soon see its budget swell to €9 million a month, for the rest of 2015 and 2016. This money has been taken by the European Commission out of the European budgetary reserve. Many of the national delegations, starting with the United Kingdom, also took the opportunity of this European summit to outline their own contributions to Triton.
London, the British Prime Minister David Cameron announced, will send HMS Bulwark, 3 helicopters and two other vessels. Germany will make two vessels available, one frigate and one supply ship, whilst France will double the number of experts, send an additional patrol ship alongside an ocean-going tug and will make “surveillance aircraft” available, announced the French President, François Hollande. A number of other delegations (15 in total) also said that they stood ready to provide resources, once Frontex has clearly defined its requirements.
A further significant measure is that the Twenty-Eight decided to give the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, a mandate to reflect upon a future operation to destroy vessels used by smugglers. It will be her responsibility to define the outlines of this mission, which will be halfway between a civil operation and a military one, but it will have to comply “with international law and human rights”, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, told the final press conference. However, it is not yet clear whether a United Nations Security Council resolution or an invitation from the Libyan representatives will be required.
The Twenty-Eight also decided to welcome more Syrian refugees in the framework of a voluntary resettlement programme. Although figures had been doing the rounds on the possibility of taking 5,000 or even as many as 10,000 refugees, the European leaders ultimately showed far greater prudence and did not include any quantitative limit in their conclusions, preferring not to set themselves any binding targets. “As things stand, however, it is felt that we will reach the number of 10,000”, one European source said. The programme is expected to start in the next few weeks.
The heads of state or government also supported the principle of a future emergency mechanism to distribute migrants arriving on European soil and will examine the “options” for this, Tusk said. Here again, however, this project will be on a voluntary basis and no details were given. The member states also agreed to step up their cooperation with third countries, particularly the neighbour countries of Libya. Liaison officers will be dispatched to these countries.
A new joint voluntary returns programme for individuals unable to claim international protection will also be launched, and steered by Frontex. The Twenty-Eight will return to the subject at the European Council of June, shortly after the European Commission's presentation of its global approach to migration, scheduled for mid-May. An EU/African Union summit will also be held in Malta in the summer, the Maltese Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat, also announced.
Not ambitious enough for the Commission, but described as historic by Matteo Renzi
“I am delighted that the Council has agreed to my proposal to triple Triton”, said the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, after the meeting. “Just doubling the resources would not have been credible”, he said, expressing his satisfaction at the fact that Triton will move closer to the resources available to Mare Nostrum. However, the Commission President expressed his regret at the fact that the member states had failed to agree on quotas for refugees to be resettled. He pledged to return to this issue in May, when the global approach is presented. He also feels that the heads of state and government have not paid sufficient attention to legal migration channels. “I would have liked to see more ambition”, he said.
“A victory for Italian diplomacy and for Europe” is how the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, described the results of this European Council, explaining that “for the first time, we have had an extraordinary summit on what is going on in the south of Europe”. “A major step forward has been taken”, he said. He added that “in the next weeks and months, we will see if we manage to move from words to actions”. The Italian leader specifically welcomed the intention to tackle smugglers and the fact that aid will be provided to the first-line countries, with “emergency support assistance”, making it possible to “relocate migrants as a matter of urgency, by sharing them out between the member states”.
Merkel open to Dublin, Franco-British initiative on 'vessels'
The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, stressed that “we need to prevent these tragedies from happening again” and that the budget for Frontex “must not be an issue”. In so doing, she opened the door to additional resources for Triton, should this prove necessary. The Chancellor also said that ultimately, the Dublin regulation, which lays down the responsibility for asylum dossiers between the member states, but creates imbalances, will have to be revised. “I feel that given the mission we have ahead of us, we need to change the Dublin rules. It will be a global process. We must negotiate this gradually. This is why today, there is just one project on a voluntary basis. We expect everybody to get involved in it”, she said, pointing out that alongside Sweden, her country has received the most Syrian refugees.
Lastly, the Chancellor said that as regards the operation to destroy smugglers' vessels, “to undertake a military action, we would first need a mandate under international law”. There are two options for this, she said: “Either a United Nations Security Council resolution, or a government of unity in Libya. For the time being, neither of these two things exist. The High Representative will have to get to work on this”.
For his part, President Hollande announced that “in the framework of a United Nations Security Council resolution, France will take the initiative with the United Kingdom”. “There can be no destruction of vessels outside the framework of international law”. He went on to say that he would discuss this resolution with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, during his visit to Armenia. “If we want to have a mandate from the United Nations, we will have to be extremely clear on the objectives and resources to achieve it. It's not an intervention, it's about the vessels”, President Hollande asserted. He went on to state that France was prepared to accept between 500 and 700 Syrian refugees.
Prime Minister Muscat said that this European Council did not mean that the questions had been resolved. “Is the result enough? Obviously, the answer is no. It never will be enough”, he explained, and it will “not put an end to the deaths at sea”. “Triton won't be Mare Nostrum”, he said. “The most important point is the signal this sends out to the criminals: the rules of the game have changed”, said the Maltese Premier. (Solenn Paulic with JC, CG, EH, IL)