The EU must guarantee genuine European solidarity for the Mediterranean regions in the management of migration flows through multilevel governance. These regions formulated a whole range of recommendations in a Final Declaration at the end of the CPMR Inter-mediterranean Commission General Assembly published on Friday 6 July.
Davide Strangis, the Executive Secretary of the CPMR Inter-mediterranean Commission confirmed to us that, “migration management on the ground is one of our major concerns”. The latter also highlighted the need to take the role of the regions into account better and which are often in the front line of migration management and behind initiatives for implementing concrete cooperation mechanisms, such as in the Aquarius case (see EUROPE 12038) or long term integration policies on their territory or in the context of development cooperation.
The regions are highlighting the “multilevel governance” approach by recognising the complementarity between the member states and regions, the recasting of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), better synergy between financing instruments and programmes, particularly between the Asylum Migration, Integration Fund (AMIF) and Cohesion Policy.
With regard to the AMIF, the regions welcome the recent Commission proposals recognising the role of the local and regional authorities (LRA) but request that the Commission demand that the member states directly engage the regions in their national migration management programmes.
They themselves are committed over the following year to analysing the requirements and experiences of the regions regarding the external dimension of the migration question, in an effort to draw up a list of existing co-operation networks between European and third country regions.
Valencia-based initiative
At the end of June, ahead of the European Council (see EUROPE 12051), the President of the Valencia Regional Community, Ximo Puig, proposed enhancing cooperation between Mediterranean rim regions in the area of migration and to hold a summit of Mediterranean regions on migration in an effort to create “connection points” between “the two continents”.
The final declaration was adopted at the end of June and brings together almost 24 Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, Albanian and Moroccan regions. To consult the final declaration in full: https://bit.ly/2J5kVwg . (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)