Luxembourg, 07/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 5 September, the EU foreign affairs ministers decided during their informal meeting in Luxembourg to enhance their cooperation within the EU, and also with EU accession candidate countries (Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - FYROM, Serbia and Turkey).
“We are in the same boat” with the candidate countries in confronting the migration crisis, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. “We must enhance our cooperation still more and work together without any sort of blame game between us - Europeans, member states, candidate countries, institutions”, she said at the press conference. Mogherini stated that the enhancement should be made on five elements, “with very concrete actions”. “Some of them have already started. Some of them are still to be defined in the days and weeks to come”, she added.
Cooperation will thus be enhanced in the fight against trafficker- and smuggler- networks and, as she had also done with the European defence ministers, Mogherini suggested to the foreign affairs ministers that there be a move to Phase 2 of the EUNAVFOR Med operation, “which would enable us to operate at sea to fight against the traffickers and smugglers”. She stated that she had observed a “wide consensus” of the ministers on this issue. “Of course, we will also need to increase the level of our actions against the traffickers' organisations on the continent as regards the route of the Western Balkans”, Mogherini added.
The EU will also enhance its partnership with the third countries, especially the countries of origin and transit.
It will thus work on the agreements for readmission and return, but also, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, on economic development and opportunities for growth and jobs. A trust fund for Africa could also be created.
The ministers will also work in the long term on the deep-rooted causes of the migration. Mogherini highlighted the situations in Libya and Syria. For Libya, she stated once again that the EU was ready to support “in every way possible, from the very beginning, a new national unity government in managing all the difficult challenges it will have to face”. Mogherini would also like the EU to step up its work on the conflict in Syria in order to find a political solution to the conflict.
The ministers will work to see how to ensure better protection for those in need. “The asylum seekers have the right to refugee status”, Mogherini said. The foreign affairs ministers also agreed that border managements should be conducted in full respect of EU values, with human rights first and foremost. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)