The interior ministers of the southern EU countries, known collectively as the ‘Med 5’ (Italy, Greece, Spain, Malta and Cyprus), met on Monday 14 February to discuss the Pact on Migration and Asylum in view of the formal Home Affairs Council on 3 March, where they will present a common position.
They agreed on the “need for concrete European solidarity towards countries of first entry - which should also include the willingness of a critical mass of Member States to adopt, inter alia, a predictable, efficient and swift relocation mechanism”, according to a statement from the Greek Ministry of Migration.
“All irregular arrivals should be eligible for relocation under the mechanism, coordinated by the European Commission”.
“We need clear results, simple procedures and above all trigger points”, added Greek minister Notis Mitarachi, saying the relocation mechanism should “be triggered when the capacity utilisation of the closed centres at our external borders is above 50% of the nominal capacity”.
Furthermore, for Greece, “alternative contributions of financial or operational solidarity only make sense if they fully compensate for the consequences of the pressure at the external border. And they cannot be accepted as a substitute for relocation when the islands become congested”, the minister added. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)