Malta offers to host EU Asylum Agency

Malta has formally declared its interest in hosting the EU's Asylum Agency, which will be set up next year with a brief to coordinate the asylum policy.

Addressing the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels yesterday, Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said that Malta welcomed the Commission's proposal to have the agency and expressed the island's interest in hosting it.

However, Dr Mifsud Bonnici stressed that the agency's seat is not the most important aspect for Malta.

"The most important thing for us is that this agency is set up as soon as possible as it is an important tool in the EU's endeavour to address the rising problems of migration and asylum all over the Union," Dr Mifsud Bonnici said after the meeting.

"We think that Malta could be a good place to host the new structure as it will also give more visibility to our migration problems among the other EU member states. It will also provide more immediate help. But the agency's seat is not something fundamental, its mission is," he said.

Sources close to the meeting said that Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni expressed his country's backing for Malta as host of the agency.

Cyprus and Greece, both of which have also shown interest in hosting the agency, did not express any opinion on Malta's candidacy and only said the agency's seat should be in the Mediterranean.

According to EU sources, Malta is one of the Commission's preferred candidates. However, the decision is not clear-cut as the final choice by EU leaders will have to be unanimous.

Officially, the EU prefers to distribute its agencies among all member states. Although Malta, so far, does not host any of the 36 EU agencies, Commission sources said that there was no guarantee that this fact would necessarily be an advantage in Malta's bid. The sources cited what happened with the Mediterranean Union, which went to Barcelona, despite Spain already hosting a number of EU agencies.

Besides coordinating asylum policy, the EU's Asylum Agency will also have a technical set-up to send specialised teams of experts to member states affected by extraordinary asylum pressures. These teams will help the national authorities in identification, translation, interpretation, accommodation and repatriation issues related to would-be asylum seekers.