With the exception of Poland, which is not involved in the final statement in protest at the re-election of Donald Tusk as president of the European Council (see EUROPE 11742), on Thursday 9 March, the member states renewed their commitment to implementing the decisions taken in Malta on 3 February to prevent would-be immigrants from setting sail from Libya.
At their last summit, the heads of state decided to help train Libyan coastguards and agreed to support and finance projects in Libya’s neighbouring countries to stop would-be immigrants from heading to Europe (see EUROPE 11718).
A conclusions document adopted on Thursday reiterates this commitment. The member states hail the European Commission’s proposals unveiled on 2 March to reinforce the policy of returning illegal immigrants. On the question of effective solidarity and reform of the Dublin Regulation that structures member states’ responsibility for dealing with asylum requests, the member states called for extra efforts to ‘rapidly’ reach consensus, the aim being to reach agreement under the Maltese presidency.
The French president, Francois Hollande, said they must continue to work with Libya both politically and in terms of controls to ensure that they did not have to experience any more particularly damaging situations. Speaking after the first days of talks, he said they also needed to work with countries of origin and in this regard, there was an agreement that had been reached with Niger that was bearing fruit and the efforts must be kept up.
At the moment, the Central Mediterranean is the focus of the greatest concern in terms of migration issues, but Spain feels it is also important to continue to monitor the situation in other areas, such as the Western Mediterranean route, reacted the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Emmanuel Hagry and Camille-Cerise Gessant)