Brussels, 27/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini, along with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, sailed off the coast of Sicily on board the Italian navy vessel San Giusto on Monday 27 April to pay her respects to the migrants who have lost their lives over the last few weeks and to discuss the migration crisis in the Mediterranean.
The meeting off Sicily allowed Mogherini to talk to Ban about the EU's plan for an operation against the boats belonging to people traffickers off the Libyan coast, after the European Council instructed her to obtain a UN mandate for such an initiative (see EUROPE 11301). On Tuesday, the high representative will travel to the UN in New York to continue discussions on this operation, the parameters of which have yet to be determined. Action to destroy the people traffickers' boats will in no way be a military operation, said Mogherini's spokesperson Catherine Ray on Monday. She indicated that it will be a typical common security and defence policy (CSDP) operation.
“To be able to take action, we have to have a United Nations mandate. That will not be easy, just as it will not be easy to get the agreement of the Libyan authorities which do not yet have a government of national unity”, Mogherini said on Sunday in an interview with Italian media. The UN secretary general is reported by AFP as saying that there can be no military solution to the on-going tragedy in the Mediterranean and calling rather for legal migration to be encouraged.
On board the San Giusto, the three leaders were expected to discuss, too, the outcome of the extraordinary European summit on the Frontex agency's Triton operation, with the member states deciding to triple its budget till the end of 2015 and also in 2016. In the next few days, the Frontex agency and the Italian authorities are expected to agree Triton's operation plan and determine how the new resources are to be deployed. The European Commission will bring forward recommendations on legal immigration on 13 May as part of a new overall approach to migration. (Solenn Paulic)