Still no headway on burden-sharing proposal

Malta's proposal last year that all EU member states share in the responsibility for illegal immigrants saved in international or non-EU waters is still being skirted by the EU and no progress has been made so far.

This became evident yesterday during a debate on illegal immigration and Frontex, the EU border agency, during the plenary session of the European Parliament.

Acting EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot evaded questions put by Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil on this issue, saying only that the Commission is working on a "communication" on the need for a global approach to illegal immigration.

Taking the floor in his capacity as the EPP-ED spokesman on Frontex, Dr Busuttil said that although the EU border agency is making efforts to help member states combat illegal immigration, the issue of burden sharing is still not being addressed.

"Frontex on its own is not the solution," Dr Busuttil told Commissioner Barrot.

"The solution must also involve a discussion on burden sharing which the EU Council (of member states) is still shying away from. We must not be hypocrites - being scandalised when an incident occurs and at the same time leaving southern member states to carry all the weight," he said.

Recalling last year's tuna-pen incident when illegal immigrants clung onto a Maltese tuna pen inside Libya's search and rescue area, Dr Busuttil asked whether a similar situation would happen again this year. "When this happened last year, Libya did not do anything while EU member states blamed each other over who was responsible. All member states have an obligation to save lives but the responsibility should be evenly shared," he said.

Commenting at the end of the debate, Mr Barrot did not make any direct reference to Dr Busuttil's comments while admitting that talks with Libya have so far been unsuccessful.

"Although we welcome the talks between Malta, Italy and Libya on the issue it is true that so far the Commission has not achieved any progress with the Libyan authorities. We will continue to pursue our efforts," Commissioner Barrot said.

Describing this year as a "test" for Frontex, Mr Barrot said that through the increase of €30 million to its budget, the agency this year is in a position to organise four large-scale maritime operations to combat illegal immigration. He said that this will include Nautilus, covering the Sicily-Malta-Libya strait.

"Information on the dates of these operations are not yet in the public domain due to security reasons but this year's missions will last longer," he said.

Mr Barrot urged member states to keep their commitments on the equipment they pledged to Frontex to conduct these important operations.

The Times is informed that Nautilus III will this year be conducted for 23 weeks. It is not yet known when the operation will start although Frontex sources had told The Times that it is due to kick off by the end of this month. Ten member states, including Malta, are expected to be involved in this mission.