An informal summit on immigration held by 16 European Union (EU) countries in Brussels on Sunday (24.6.2018) ended with progress towards forging an agreement at next week's European Council, according to several of the leaders who participated in the meeting.
La german chancellorAngela Merkel said there was consensus that “can't be left alone"to the partners most affected by the arrival of irregular immigration and said that refugees "cannot choose" in which country they request asylum.
While the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, stressed his confidence that the EU can reach agreement on migration issues after the “step forward” on Sunday in Brussels. He also highlighted the challenge that Spain faces in this problem as a border country of the EU.
For its part, the first Italian Minister, Giuseppe Conte, presented a new plan to address the problem, which includes setting up centres in transit states where it is decided in advance who is entitled to asylum in Europe.
The informal summit was called by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, ahead of next week's meeting, in which the 28 European countries will try to respond to the situation of migrants arriving via the Mediterranean.
Three pillars
This consensus revolves around three pillars: lthe need to work more with countries of origin and transit of immigration, improve the protection of external borders, and reform asylum procedures, among other things, to tackle secondary migration whereby protection seekers move from one country to another in the EU.
According to EU sources, countries agree that the "funding gap" in their cooperation with third countries must be filled.
In this regard, they have committed to addressing items that have not yet been disbursed within existing programmes, specifically a €500 million allocation for the EU Trust Fund for Africa and the second tranche of its migration agreement with Turkey, worth €3.000 billion.
Objective
The general objective is Improve cooperation with countries of origin and transit of migrants, something that, according to some leaders, has already been done with Türkiye or North Africa, managing to reduce arrivals to Europe.
As for borders, countries agree on Strengthening the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the extension of the powers of the European Asylum Assistance Office (EASO).
The leaders thus pledged to speed up the process of proposals to reform the European asylum system, which have been on the table since 2015.
Specifically, they expect to close five of them this July: the one concerning the asylum agency, the homogenisation of refugee resettlement conditions, for the improvement of the Eurodac fingerprint database, the conditions for receiving immigrants and the one that will harmonize the standards of protection that refugees should receive.
However, there remains no specific date or agreement between countries on the reform of the Dublin system or on asylum procedures, changes that are considered essential to tackle the deficiencies that were revealed by the refugee crisis of 2015.
The leaders also discussed a Franco-Spanish proposal for create controlled centres in EU countries where migrants disembark. Also on the table was the Italian plan, which advocates creating centres in countries outside the EU where it is decided in advance who is entitled to asylum and who is not, so as to avoid departures to Europe.
EU sources explained that this new platform concept will continue to be part of the debate, but that institutions and States must now study both possibilities to see how they can be made operational in accordance with international law.
Source: Reuters
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