Six European Union Interior Ministers from the Mediterranean region will today ask their colleagues to act “now and without further delay” on the illegal immigration crisis unfolding on the southern littoral of the EU.
At a meeting in Rome yesterday in preparation for today’s Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, the Interior Ministers of Malta, Italy, France, Spain, Greece and Cyprus agreed on a common stand they would be taking in Brussels.
The six member states will be asking the EU to tackle without further delay the problem of il-legal immigration in Southern Europe by immediately setting up a common solidarity mechanism aimed at providing burden sharing to countries mostly affected by the possible sudden influx of illegal immigrants.
They will also ask for the setting up of an “emergency and extraordinary” fund providing immediate funding access to member states most affected and to re-engineer Frontex, the EU’s border control agency, to make its presence more effective.
Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici said this was an “emergency situation that requires an emergency solution”.
“We agreed we cannot wait any longer for the EU to take its time to put in place a common asylum system. We have an emergency on our doorstep and we need an immediate response. I hope the other member states, particularly those that until now have been reluctant to burden sharing will understand the gravity of the situation and act,” he said.
The southern EU member states fear an exodus of about a million African citizens towards Europe as a consequence of the ongoing turmoil in North Africa. The first countries to be hit in such an emergency will be Malta and Italy, the closest EU member states to the Maghreb region.
Although in the past years the EU has been taking various initiatives to help overburdened countries cope better with the situation, reluctance by the northern member states slowed down the process.
Burden sharing, promoted by Malta over the past years, is still only voluntary and many member states oppose its compulsory introduction. Member states have also rejected a European Commission proposal to be able to suspend the Dublin II rules for those countries hit by sudden “invasions” of illegal immigrants. According to these rules, asylum applications are to be dealt with by member states where the application is first made.
A tailor-made burden sharing pilot project initiated two years ago so asylum seekers in Malta could be relocated to other member states has yielded unsatisfactory results because the 27 member states only took some 500 asylum seekers from Malta with many large member states making only “token” commitments.
Meanwhile, after days of mild diplomatic statements on the unfolding situation in Libya, the EU yesterday raised its tone on the situation, condemning the atrocities reported to be committed by the Gaddafi regime and suspending all negotiations with Tripoli on an association agreement.
The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton last night called for an independent investigation by the international community on the atrocities in Libya and said who was responsible should be held accountable.
“The EU stresses that those responsible for the brutal aggression and violence against civilians are held to account,” she said.
According to a Commission spokesman, about 10,000 EU citizens were still caught up in Libya until yesterday.
EU representatives met in an urgent meeting to discuss possible sanctions against Libya in order to put more pressure on the regime to listen to the people’s demands.