“Key actions” to step up EU efforts to tackle migration by using existing tools and cooperation in managing the flow from third countries are being debated by European commissioners.
The College of Commissioners held the first orientation debate on the matter yesterday with the aim of drawing up a comprehensive European Agenda on Migration.
For the first time, managing migration better “is an explicit priority” of the Commission in line with the political guidelines of president Jean-Claude Juncker.
The Commission said the EU had one of the most advanced global legislative frameworks to offer protection to those in need and now “is the time to fully and coherently implement the recently-adopted Common European Asylum System”.
The orientation debate set out four main areas of action: a strong common asylum system; a new European policy on legal migration; fighting irregular migration and human trafficking more robustly; and securing Europe’s external borders.
We need to pool more resources among member states
The Commission said it was working towards a more “comprehensive set of actions against human smuggling”. It also wants to further develop concrete tools targeting routes and priority countries in close collaboration with third countries.
A solid asylum and migration policy could only be sustained if Europe “manages its external borders” while fully respecting fundamental rights, the Commission said.
Border management was a shared competence between the EU and the member states and the enforcement of surveillance of the external borders “is of vital interest to all”.
The drawing up of the European Agenda on Migration is considered as an opportunity to discuss whether EU’s border agency Frontex needs a budget increase, more operational assets and human resources.
“We need to pool more resources among member states if we truly want to reinforce the work of Frontex and put European border guard teams into action,” the Commission said.
It would “take all efforts so that existing divergences in national asylum policy practices disappear”. Deepening the cooperation with third countries would also be “essential” to address the root causes of migration together with mainstreaming migration into the design of development strategies.
The Commission said it was committed to making progress in the increased use of relocation and resettlement efforts by the EU in close dialogue with member states and third countries, “which host important numbers of refugees”.
Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said migration was about people, noting that “behind each face arriving at our borders, there is an individual: a businessperson travelling to work, a student coming to study, a victim of people-traffickers, a parent trying to get the children to safety”.
In presenting a comprehensive European Agenda on Migration, one had to think about all dimensions of migration, the Commission noted. “This is not about quick fixes; this is about creating a more secure, prosperous and attractive EU.”