A delegation of MEPs, led by the British Linda McAvan (S&D), will attend the UN Intergovernmental Conference on Migration on 10-11 December in Marrakesh, where the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, concluded last July, is to be endorsed.
In a climate of growing hostility to the Pact (see EUROPE 12149), Ms McAvan, who chairs the European Parliament Development Committee, castigated on Thursday 6 December the decision of some EU Member States to turn their backs on this non-binding international instrument, which is supposed not to interfere with national prerogatives in the field of migration policy.
"This Global Compact is an important step towards creating an international system to better manage migration and cut the amount of people migrating via dangerous and illegal routes. Whilst a number of EU countries are shamefully refusing to sign the voluntary Compact, the European Parliament’s presence in Marrakesh is a symbol of the EU’s strong support of the UN process”, Ms McAvan said in a statement.
Strongly supporting the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the European Parliament logically supported the Global Compact last April, stating that it "should be people-centred and human rights-based, and should provide for long-term, sustainable and comprehensive measures, for the benefit of all parties involved, building on the principle of partnership and strengthened cooperation among countries of origin, transit and destination". The European Parliament also stressed that the Pact should ensure the protection of the most vulnerable (women and children, unaccompanied minors).
The following will be part of the delegation: Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, Italy), Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (EPP, Sweden), Željana Zovko (EPP, Hungary), Cécile Kyenge (S&D, Italy), Elena Valenciano (S&D, Spain), Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands), Laura Ferrara (ELDD, Italy), Udo Voigt (NI, Germany).
In the EU, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Italy have announced that they will not sign the pact. Denmark has reservations. Belgium should be represented in Marrakesh by Charles Michel to support the Pact, but at the cost of a government crisis. Outside the EU, Switzerland, the United States, Israel and Australia will remain outside the Pact. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)