Brussels, 24/08/2015 (Agence Europe) - Following a weekend when a further 4,400 migrants were rescued by Italian coastguards, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, writing in an opinion piece published in the French and German press, has criticised the attitude of member states towards the migration crisis and urged them to act. He felt, however, that convening a further extraordinary summit to discuss the issue would serve no useful purpose.
He announced, too, that, in September, the Commission would issue a list of third countries deemed to be safe countries of origin. This list will help member states speed up the processing of asylum applications from nationals of countries deemed not to be dangerous and their return to their countries. On 20 July, EU home affairs ministers adopted conclusions on these safe countries, highlighting in particular the Balkan countries, some nationals of which, through asylum requests deemed to be unfounded, are putting the national administrations of member states under pressure.
“We do not need another extraordinary heads of state and/government summit. We have already had a number of summits and we will meet again in Malta in November. What we need is to make sure that all member states of the EU now adopt European measures and put them into effect on the ground”, Juncker argued. He noted, too, that the Commission had, “nine years ago, proposed that there should be a common EU list of 'safe countries of origin'” but that, “at the time, the member states had rejected the idea as interference in areas of national responsibility”.
He said that “What we need, and what we are sadly still lacking, is the collective courage to follow through on our commitments - even when they are not easy; even when they are not popular”.
Expressing concern at the growing populism in member states, Juncker recalled the measures taken since the month of May, including the tripling of the support for the Triton operation and the resettlement in the EU of 20,000 refugees currently living in UN camps in third countries.
However, with regard to the relocation of 40,000 migrants already in Greece and Italy, an issue that is proving difficult for the member states, the Commission president called for more to be done and repeated that the Commission would propose a permanent mechanism for sharing migrants and asylum seekers among the member states.
On Monday 24 August, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was due to hold discussions in Berlin with French President François Hollande on the situation in Ukraine and the migrant crisis. The two will discuss what can be done in response to what is considered to be the largest movement of people since the Second World War. AFP reports however, that, in the view of Paris, no new paper will result from the meeting.
According to AFP, in their meeting, the two leaders will consider the drafting of a common list of safe countries of origin and speeding up the process putting in place identification centres, so-called hotspots, for migrants arriving in Italy and Greece. Two have already been set up: one in Sicily and the other in the Port of Piraeus. Frontex estimates that 340,000 people have crossed into the EU in the first seven months of this year, compared with 280,000 in the whole of 2014. (Solenn Paulic)