Working together on immigration

Last week, the Budgets Committee of the European Parliament adopted an amendment that I tabled along with another three MEPs from Greece, Spain and Cyprus calling for the establishment of a solidarity mechanism to enable burden sharing on immigration among EU member states.

Voting on the EU 2009 budget at committee stage, the committee accepted our amendment to increase the budget of the European Refugee Fund by an additional €5 million so that the operation of the burden-sharing mechanism could start. Another €5 million were allocated to promote other resettlement schemes.

In total, the budget allocation for the European Refugee Fund will now increase to almost €100 million for next year alone.

The amendment as adopted reflects the burden-sharing provision that was recently adopted by the Council of Ministers on the request of the Maltese government. It states as follows:

"A solidarity mechanism shall be established to facilitate the voluntary reallocation (or resettlement) of refugees and beneficiaries of international protection from EU member states, which are facing severe pressure from immigration flows, to other member states. The project would establish the mechanism at EU level and put it into operation on a test basis so that it may eventually be pursued under a Common European Asylum System. Member states would freely determine all aspects of the selection process on a voluntary basis. The Commission would set the framework, issue guidelines, facilitate co-ordination and encourage participation."

Separately, the committee also adopted a compromise on another amendment that we tabled, which allocates an additional €10 million to the EU’s Frontex agency to enable it to extend its maritime missions in Southern Europe on a permanent basis with effect from next January.

This year, Frontex missions in our region were limited to six months’ duration. From next year, there will now be sufficient financial resources to extend them on a permanent basis if member states agree to go for it.

These amendments were endorsed following a marathon lobbying effort that we have undertaken over the past months. I, therefore, warmly welcome the vote in committee because it means that the European Parliament has given its green light to burden sharing and that it stands four square behind Malta’s efforts to get EU countries to move from words to action on this sensitive subject.

Indeed, in Parliament we have gone one step further by allocating an initial €5 million to help get this mechanism going. This means that the EU will be able to pay for the transfer of immigrants from countries such as Malta to other EU countries.

In this way, Parliament is putting its money where its mouth is.

The amendment on Frontex is equally important because it sends the political signal that we want this agency to get its act together and make a difference. In the Canary Islands Frontex missions were successful and have led to a reduction of arrivals of immigrants by more than half this year. This occurred largely as a result of the cooperation of Mauritania and Senegal from which immigrants embark to head for the Spanish islands. We want Frontex missions to be equally effective in the Mediterranean. And the answer is not to scrap Frontex missions but to make them effective.

It is important to emphasise that both our amendments were supported by all major political groups in the European Parliament, notably the EPP-ED group and the Socialist group. MEP Louis Grech, who was present and voting at the meeting of the Budgets Committee, intervened to secure the Socialists’ support on the Frontex amendment.

None of this is to say that the challenge of immigration will suddenly be solved. But these are certainly small but important steps forward in getting us there.

I, therefore, want to publicly acknowledge Mr Grech’s role and to thank him for his backing. His support clearly demonstrates, if any proof were needed, that when we unite on issues that concern our national interest and when we work together, we can achieve results. It shows that, on this issue, we cannot afford to give in to the pressures of political division.

The vote in the Budget Committee is expected to be endorsed in the Parliament’s plenary when it meets next week in Strasbourg to vote on the first reading of the EU budget for 2009.

So the job is not done. But we are more than half way there and we are well on course.

Readers who would like to ask questions to be answered in this column can send an e-mail, identifying themselves, to contact@simonbusuttil.eu or through www.simonbusuttil.eu.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.