Sweden on long-term solution

Foreign Minister Tonio Borg has said that rather than squabble over whether burden-sharing should be voluntary or mandatory, the fundamental question was whether member states were willing to shoulder part of the load.

Dr Borg's comments were a clear reaction to the statement made by the Swedish Ambassador to Malta, Ulla Gudmundson, earlier this week when she ruled out mandatory burden-sharing under her country's six-month EU presidency.

Ms Gudmundson said her government wanted to embark on a meaningful discussion on how to manage migration issues in the Mediterranean. She repeated this stance yesterday during an event to outline the Swedish presidency's priorities.

She referred to the pilot project agreed upon by EU ministers in June, through which member states take refugees from Malta, and said illegal migration was "a complex issue for Malta, Sweden and Europe".

Dr Borg said France's recent decision to accept 96 refugees last week and Germany's declaration that it would take 14 refugees put "significant moral pressure" on other member states to follow suit.

Replying to a question from the floor, Ms Gudmundson said Sweden believed a long-term solution to the problem of illegal migration had to be found, especially through continued talks with countries of origin and countries of transit such as Libya and Tunisia.

Dr Borg said that Malta could not rely solely on long-term solutions: "Our problem is immediate. We would like the European Commission to conclude the framework agreement with Libya by the end of the year. The generous agreement between Italy and Malta led to a lull. How long this lull will last we do not know."

Ms Gudmundson said other key areas the Swedish presidency would be focusing on over the next six months included climate change, the economic crisis and better regulation, cleaning up the Baltic Sea, improving economic prospects in the region and strengthening the EU as a global actor.

She said her country would also carry out the reform of EU institutions, depending on whether the Lisbon Treaty was approved in the Irish referendum.

"With a no vote, we will have to handle an institutional crisis but with a yes vote, we will have to select an EU President," she said.

Ms Gudmundson said her country would like to increase EU member states' drop in emissions by 10 per cent to 30 per cent by 2020. On this, the Swedish presidency would also like to bring on board other key players such as the US, China and India.