Brussels brushes off the conclusions on Malta and Italy
There will be no EU inquiry to determine whether Italy and Malta carried any responsibility in the death of 63 irregular migrants during an ill-fated crossing from Libya, the subject of a damning Council of Europe report. An EU spokesman said...
There will be no EU inquiry to determine whether Italy and Malta carried any responsibility in the death of 63 irregular migrants during an ill-fated crossing from Libya, the subject of a damning Council of Europe report.
An EU spokesman said yesterday that the report clearly showed that the incident “took place in international waters” and not in “EU waters”.
“Although we always appeal to our member states to consider saving lives as their first important objective in such missions, there is a limit to EU law,” he said.
“I would like to highlight once again that this incident took place in international waters and so we have no competence over the issue. However, we still take note of this report and once again remind member states that people in need should take precedence over any other consideration in such rescue missions,” he said.
Report puts main blame on Nato
The report, published last week, puts the main blame on Nato for the loss of life, noting that the military organisation was responsible for search and rescue operations in the area during the ongoing Libyan conflict at the time.
However, the author, Dutch Socialist MP Tineke Strik, still implicated Italy and Malta, claiming that the two EU member states were aware of the distress call that had been sent because their search and rescue areas confined with that of Libya.
They should have therefore responded, Ms Strik said.
Malta denies any responsibility in the tragedy. Dubbing the findings of the report as “confused”, the government said that the Council of Europe had established that Italy’s Rescue Coordination Centre was the first to be informed.
Moreover, the report clearly showed that both positions reported by a satellite phone on board the ill-fated boat were well-within the Libyan search and rescue region on the March 27, 2011, when the ordeal started.
Italy, which is also a Nato member, insists it was not responsible for the search and rescue operation.
Asked whether the report was discussed during a meeting earlier this week in Brussels between European Commission president José Manuel Barroso and Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a spokesman for Mr Barroso said that “the report was not on the agenda”.