Brussels, 11/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - A meeting of the parliaments of the member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) parliamentary assembly was held in Lisbon on Monday 11 May on the theme of Immigration, asylum and human rights in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
The presidents were expected to formalise the adoption of a statement to put to the annual UfM plenary assembly the following day. The assembly is currently presided over by the Portuguese parliament and addresses a series of recommendations to the EU heads of state and government. The assembly is therefore expected to call for “a common European policy for legal migration, with new legal access routes to the EU”. According to the text, Europe should “host more refugees” and the EU countries should “be more flexible at the level of applying discretionary clauses from the Dublin Convention on visas”.
The presidents recommend there be “more humanitarian channels in the coastal countries so as to be able to address the emergency arrivals of migrants” and grant “more humanitarian visas for the people needing international protection”.
The presidents also call for the creation of “information centres in the countries of origin, transit and destination so as to provide clarification and orientate the migrants as regards their rights and obligations” (EUROPE will report on the results of this meeting in its next issue). (Fathi B'Chir)