Pressure on Frontex to restart patrols

The largest political group in the European Parliament, the EPP-ED group, yesterday appealed to European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini to restart, as soon as possible, the EU's anti-immigration patrols off the Maltese coast.

The month-long Nautilus II, the second EU patrol mission to be held in the Sicily-Malta-Libya strait, ended last week.

Earlier this year, Frontex, the EU border agency coordinating the mission, had said that the central Mediterranean mission would be stopped after a month for an analysis of the situation and would possibly resume soon after.

Questions sent to the agency last week by The Times requesting an analysis of the Nautilus II operation and asking when the mission would restart remain unanswered. Pressure, however, is mounting on the Commission to get the operation underway again.

The leader of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament, Joseph Daul, yesterday called upon the European Commission and Frontex to immediately resume Nautilus II.

In a letter to Mr Frattini, Mr Daul said: "I am sure your intervention will have a determining impact on the resumption of the Frontex mission in the Mediterranean area".

In a statement, the group recalled that the Nautilus mission was launched just days before the EPP-ED Study Days in Malta, early last month.

"It appears that the mission has been effective in reducing the number of arrivals to Malta, when one compares these to the arrivals in the same period last month (50 per cent less), although it is still too early to judge," Mr Daul wrote.

"But if reductions in numbers were indeed due to the effectiveness of the mission, then it is clear that it does not make any sense at all to stop them in peak season, during the crucial summer months of August and September."

Sources close to the EPP-ED group in Brussels told The Times yesterday Mr Daul's letter was sent on the initiative of Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil, who is the head of the Maltese delegation in the group.

When contacted, Dr Busuttil confirmed he had spoken to Mr Daul about the issue earlier this week, adding that he was delighted that the EPP-ED group "is quickly following up its pledge, to support Malta, made barely four weeks ago during the EPP-ED Study Days in Malta. I hope the Commission will be just as ready to move on this urgent issue".

Dr Busuttil stressed that the continued presence of Frontex this month and the next would be crucial. "If the Frontex mission was effective, then there is no reason why it should be stopped in the most critical two months of the immigration season."

Last week, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and AFM commander Brigadier Carmel Vassallo also called upon Frontex to relaunch its anti-immigration patrol mission.