Brussels, 10/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - With attention since the month of September focusing essentially on the so-called Balkan migratory route and the Eastern Mediterranean, European leaders will meet in the Maltese capital Valetta on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 November for a summit that hopes to counter immigration from Africa and to work with their African counterparts on the more structural causes of this migration.
Such, at any rate, is the stated aim of the European side which launched the idea of this EU/Africa summit to be devoted to immigration after a series of tragedies at sea in April of this year in which hundreds of migrants, most of whom had set off from Libya, lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean. Though now only one migrant in seven travels by the central Mediterranean route and all the others by the Balkans, a European official said on Monday 9 November that the summit was still “very relevant since African migration is long-term and is structural in nature”, linked both to conflict zones and to political instability, principally in South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, and also to poverty.
The EU is hoping, therefore, to work on the root causes of this migration and is expected to offer its African partners a sort of two-way agreement or one that sets certain conditions. The agreement is likely to comprise offers of legal migration to the EU for African students and teachers (the idea is to double the number permitted by Erasmus+ by 2016, for example) and commitments to strengthen the socio-economic development of the continent. It is also hoped to reach agreement on financing the EU trust fund recently launched by the Commission. The Commission would like to see the fund's coffers swelled by member states' contributions as early as this week in Valetta. The member states promised at the end of September to provide the fund with €1.8 billion.
Readmission, returns and migrant “centres” remain sensitive issues. The EU will also set a large number of conditions and, according to the European official, issues will remain to be resolved in Valetta, for example, with regard to the policies on returns and readmission by African countries of their nationals who have entered or tried to enter the EU illegally. The EU would welcome a rise in the rate of returns and wants to develop very practical operational agreements with the African countries. It wants to get agreement on a standard document - the “EU pass” - valid throughout the EU to ensure the return of irregular migrants. For their part, the African partners would like the emphasis placed more on so-called voluntary returns and on offers of legal migration, the source commented.
A further potentially thorny issue could be discussed in Valetta. The EU wants to talk about setting up reception centres in Africa where migrants could be registered, identified and have a start made to consideration of their requests for asylum in the EU, and, indeed, have their request turned down. The matter has been withdrawn from the latest draft statements (a political statement and an action plan are expected to be adopted) as it offended the sensitivities of the African countries.
“We are looking to continue discussions with our African partners”, the source went on. “A large number of those who take the path of illegal migration do so without realising they are risking their lives. The idea, then, was to have centres in the countries of departure or transit where they can be provided with information on the risks they are taking and the administrative procedures in Europe” and also possibly undertake “the first administrative stage, pre-screening to see if the applicant for asylum the EU has any chance whatsoever of being admitted”, he added.
Among the member states, some “want more, want to give these centres other jobs”, whereas others are calling for the nature of the centres to be better defined. The aim remains, however, to reach a solution shared by everyone and not one that is imposed. Some 63 leaders from Europe and Africa are expected in Valetta over the two days. Most of the EU leaders will then meet informally, on 12 November, to discuss the migratory situation in the EU. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)