A month had passed since the last EU summit and the timeframe leaders had agreed to set to tackle immigration had not yet been drawn up, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia complained yesterday.
Speaking during an informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Dr Mallia raised the need to concretely address solidarity by putting it into practice.
He said “mechanisms for the voluntary and coordinated sharing of responsibility between member states should be further analysed and developed” in the context of the creation of a Common European Asylum System.
“We have forgotten the meaning of solidarity, especially with countries such as Malta that easily reach saturation point when arrivals of irregular migrants pick up a steady pace each and every year,” he said.
He acknowledged that, over the past years, the European Commission had tried hard to address the issue. It launched two relocation projects for Malta and the island had to admit that they were not totally without success. However, the minister noted, their effect was limited when considering the characteristics of the island itself.
“It is just that most member states have not been forthcoming with solidarity. They have hidden behind the ‘voluntariness’ aspect and have forgotten that the beneficiaries of international protection have not voluntarily left their country and not voluntarily risked their lives on land and on the sea to reach Europe,” he said.
Dr Mallia said the measures identified by the Task Force for the Mediterranean, which had been endorsed by the EU heads of State and of government last December, specifically called for the mobilisation of all efforts for their implementation within a clear timeframe. “A month has passed and we have no timeframe indicated as yet,” he said, asking whether the European Commission could explain what the next steps would be. “We cannot afford to fail to deliver on this again. We have to go further, even further than what we agreed upon in the Task Force, as this is meant to address longer term aims. The EU needs to enhance its efforts with third countries of origin, with more involvement of the third countries themselves,” he added.
He emphasised that beneficiaries of international protection should be able to move freely within the EU and consideration had to be given to the mutual recognition of decisions granting international protection.