French PM makes conditional pledge on burden sharing

French Prime Minister François Fillon said yesterday his country was prepared to take its share of the illegal migration burden as long as this was compatible with what was going on in the rest of Europe.

Asked for his stand on Malta's burden-sharing proposal during a news conference given jointly with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi following talks between the two, Mr Fillon said the priority should be to repatriate whenever possible. However, a number of rules had to be set for when this was not possible, be it for economic, humanitarian or legal reasons, so that Malta would not end up being the only country having to shoulder responsibility for such people.

"Indeed, France is prepared to take its share of the burden as long as this is compatible with what is going on in the rest of Europe," he said.

Mr Fillon, whose country takes on the Presidency of the EU on July 1, said France believed in and wanted to step up controls in the Mediterranean region and also on the outer borders of the EU in order to regulate migration flows.

He clarified that France had always been an open country, welcoming migratory flows, so much so that the French population included five million people of foreign origin. However, countries had to be able to integrate the people coming into their societies and this was not possible when these arrived in limitless numbers.

Asked what could Europe do for Malta, Dr Gonzi said he expected Europe to translate the value of solidarity into concrete action, such as through burden sharing and helping Malta in a difficult situation.

Malta, he said, could not cope with the large number of illegal immigrants landing on its shores and it expected its European colleagues to understand this and share the burden. It also expected all EU member states to participate actively in all the initiatives, including Frontex, and propose concrete action for the repatriation of immigrants who were not granted refugee or humanitarian status.

The two Prime Ministers discussed France's proposal for a Union of the Mediterranean, which Dr Gonzi welcomed and in which, he promised, Malta would be vociferously active in order to make it a success.

He accepted an invitation from French President Nicholas Sarkozy to attend the official launching of the Union on July 13 and said the initiative would help the Mediterranean become a more stable region achieving more economic growth as a result of such stability.

Mr Fillon agreed that "together we can and must solve environmental problems and challenges in the Mediterranean". And Malta, he said, was in a singular position at the heart of so many of these issues, having to deal with so many of these problems "and should be an inspiration in what we do to ensure the success of this project".

He said that the setting up of the Union was one of the two objectives behind his meeting with Dr Gonzi, the other being to present the aims, targets and priorities set by his government as it prepared to take over the EU Presidency. These included addressing climate change and ensuring energy supplies security for all of Europe, reaching a common agreement on immigration policies since EU countries had different systems in place, European defence and the modernisation of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Trade, France being one of Malta's top trading partners namely because of ST Microelectronics and CMA-CGM, was also on the table of discussion.

Asked by a member of the French media how he dealt with criticism from the media, Dr Gonzi answered: "My experience has been that I benefitted from criticism by the media".