The conclusions on migration of the EU leaders at the summit held on October 25 were hailed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as a landmark achievement.
Unfortunately, we at Alternattiva Demokratika beg to differ and instead agree with our European Green counterparts that it was shameful of the Council members to postpone a decision concerning the concrete steps that need to be taken with regard to migration in the Mediterranean.
What did the concluding document state regarding the issue of helpless people being trafficked across the Mediterranean Sea, with many of them losing their lives in the process?
The exact wording of the first paragraph reads: “The European Council invites the newly established Task Force for the Mediterranean, led by the European Commission and involving Member States, EU agencies and the EEAS, to identify – based on the principles of prevention, protection and solidarity – priority actions for a more efficient short term use of European policies and tools.
“The Commission will report to the Council at its meeting of 5-6 December 2013 on the work of the Task Force with a view of taking operational decisions. The Presidency will report to the European Council in December”.
Muscat was elated at these words, which he described as a historic breakthrough. In reality, there is a real risk that – at least for the immediate future – all that comes out of them is hot air.
Why do I say so?
Because paragraph 49 of the same declaration adds: “The European Council will return to asylum and migration issues in a broader and longer term policy perspective in June 2014, when strategic guidelines for further legislative and operational planning in the area of freedom, security and justice will be defined.”
What does this mean in practice? In layman’s terms, this would mean that any binding regulations concerning migration issues in the Mediterranean would only be approved by the council of EU prime ministers in June 2014, and this only if there are absolutely no amendments to the text proposed by the European Commission. This rarely happens, since the prime ministers tend to modify what the Commission proposes.
And if there are amendments which delay the process, we are in deep trouble, since the Barroso Commission’s remit ends in June 2014... and a completely new Commission will be nominated to take over after that.
So, basically, at the moment of truth on October 25, the European Council was incapable of putting into practice the European values of respect towards life and human dignity. The EU has for years been postponing decisions on real and practical solidarity on the Mediterranean migration issue.
The European Council was incapable of putting into practice the European values of respect and human dignity
This is utterly shameful: 10 Socialist prime ministers, led by Frenchman François Hollande, and 14 PPE prime ministers led by Angela Merkel, have not had the guts to take the bull by the horns and to show the humanitarian side of politics.
Instead, they have been playing for time... and taking for a ride in the process the Maltese and Italian prime ministers as well as people (apart from all the poor migrants who will drown in the meantime).
The Government of Malta should denounce this cynical indifference on the part of many of the EU’s prime ministers. Instead they should publicly support the positions taken by the European Greens and recently reiterated by European Parliament president Martin Schultz on responsibility sharing and the reform of the Dublin II Convention as well as devising legal migration channels into the EU.
That is the only way forward for politicians with a heart.
arnoldcassola@gmail.com
Arnold Cassola is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - the Green party.