The European Commission has called for a meeting of member state experts to be held on Friday 24 August to take stock of ways to address the migration challenge and solve the difficult problem of migrants’ disembarkation from vessels that have gone to their rescue, but which are refused disembarkation in Italian ports.
Twelve member states including those directly concerned, and the Austrian EU presidency, are expected to take part at this stage at the meeting that will begin late morning and should last two hours. However, the meeting is open to all, Tove Ernst, the spokesman for Migrations Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, said on Thursday.
The informal meeting should allow member states to make headway in finding common solutions for migrants’ disembarkation, further to what was agreed at the European Council and later translated into Commission proposals on 24 July (see EUROPE 12069), on controlled centres in the EU and regional disembarkation platforms in third countries of the Mediterranean respectively. On 24 July, on the intra-European chapter, the Commission had proposed upstream coordination of disembarkation from the vessels and an offer of financial support for countries willing to take part.
In recent days, the question of host countries for ships having rescued migrants at sea has been raised again with the Diciotti, after a series of similar episodes, including the case of the Aquarius in June. Solutions had been found on a case-by-case basis but, as the Commission firmly underlines, this is not a sustainable solution.
At the Council of the EU this summer, the Austrian presidency held a series of bilateral meetings in the hope of taking forward the “asylum” package which contains seven chapters, including one – reform of the Dublin Regulation – which is more problematic than others. All the national delegations will have been consulted by the end of the month on this package and on other measures decided in the wake of the European Council. Further discussion is planned early September before the informal summit in Salzburg on 20 September, when migration will be one of the key themes of debate. At this stage, the Austrian presidency is working in coordination with Donald Tusk’s team to define the content of those discussions. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)