The Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) meeting in Malta on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 February (see EUROPE 11731) devoted its first day to discussion on the European policy for migration – a subject for which the ARLEM participants coming from both shores of the Mediterranean say they feel great sensitivity.
"Many of us have to face this urgent situation every day and many of us also have to face populism and strong opposition to co-ordinated action", the president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Markku Markkula, stated.
The unanimous belief is that management of this issue is pushing the means of control and social and legal management to their extremes – hence a pressing request for the methods and texts to be reviewed, such as the Copenhagen criteria on the right to asylum. The recent efforts at European level are welcomed, as is the initiative to transform the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) into a European agency.
Markkula and the Maltese minister for home affairs and national security, Carmelo Abela, reiterated the breadth of the challenges and the stakes for Europe, as well as for its partners on the other shore of the Mediterranean. Mention was made of the particular challenges posed to the European countries on the Mediterranean front: Greece, Italy and also Malta, which just before the conference organised a visit for participants to a local reception centre (the Marsa Open Center) to give a concrete understanding of the issue.
"The problem is not migration – there have always been movements of populations. The problem is the irregular migration", said Peter Bossman (the Socialist mayor of Piran in Slovenia), who has written a report on the economic dimension and external aspects of the EU's migration policy.
"We don't need to underline the political relevance of the subjects we're going to discuss today. Lots of us have to face an emergency situation on the ground every day", Markkula stated. "I was pleased to see 160,000 citizens from Barcelona last Friday marching in favour of welcoming refugees and underscoring the European schema of sharing out the refugees", he said. The EU's successive reorganisations of its migration policy, driven by necessity, are very welcome, but, Markkula said, "I must underline my belief that the human dimension should be the guiding principle of our actions". The CoR thus intends to become "the advocate of the right to asylum" for greater effectiveness and the creation of legal routes for "the populations in search of international protection" and in favour of a development effort for the countries of origin, Marrkula stated.
He welcomes the recent "investment plan for Africa, which is provided with €62 billion".
For the mayor of Tripoli (Libya), the issue is simple: "Either the wealth moves to the people, or the people move to the wealth". The choice is clear for Abdelrauf Beitelmal. His speech focused the debates on the case of Libya, which has become central to the effort sought to control the flows of humans. "Libya is facing a phenomenon we were not prepared for ... We need support and real assistance" even if, he admits, "the chaos does not make the response [to the challenge] easy" and "we don't know when our transition will come to its 'happy end'". He calls for emphasis to be given to a far-reaching initiative which should not only be based on border control: "most of the migrants crossing Libya are not coming from the neighbouring countries" but are brought through trafficker networks, against which Beitelmal calls for mobilisation.
"We need to change the software", Roberta Metsola MEP (EPP, Malta) stated. "We need to tackle the networks and also to distinguish migrants from asylum seekers", she added, calling for a "Marshall plan" to be launched for the countries of departure. (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)