German President Joachim Gauck yesterday called on EU member states to share the burden of migration, urging them to shoulder their responsibility and give refugees a humane reception.
“Germany appreciates Malta’s engagement in taking in refugees. Rest assured we are aware that in doing so, Malta is facing huge challenges. That is why we need to discuss ways to distribute the burdens fairly. And yet, it is the responsibility of every individual and every state to do what it can in ensuring that we receive refugees in a humane manner,” Mr Gauck said at a lunch hosted by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday.
In his address, just before the invitees drank a toast to stronger relations between Malta and Germany, Joseph Muscat called for “frank discussions on the options for fair distribution of responsibility towards asylum seekers in the EU”. The current situation was a most unbalanced one, he said, with pressure unevenly distributed among member states.
The topic of migration topped the agenda during the two-day State visit by Mr Gauck and his partner, Daniela Schadt.
During a meeting earlier in the morning, Dr Muscat stressed his appreciation for the President’s “extremely symbolic gesture” of coming to Malta at this time, following the tragedy two weeks ago, when at least 800 people died in the Mediterranean Sea.
‘Malta living up to Phoenician name meaning place of refuge’
“We believe that this is an intentional sign of goodwill from Germany,” he said at San Anton Palace in Balzan. Dr Muscat also thanked Mr Gauck for his role in shifting the attitude on migration, not just in Germany but also in other European countries.
Before getting into the “nitty gritty details of how, who and when”, the most crucial obstacle was the mindset about migration, and the President’s intervention in the public sphere had helped create the right atmosphere for discussion, he said.
The Prime Minister added that while short-term solutions were being sought in the coming months, such as going after criminal networks, medium and long-term ones would be dealt with in the EU-Africa summit planned to be held in Malta later this year.
Referring to a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in February, Dr Muscat said Germany should take the lead, not just when it came to Eastern European issues but also on migration issues.
In his address, Mr Gauck reiterated that he was in Malta to see how the country was dealing with the refugee crisis.
The attack on the Bardo museum in Tunisia in March was a reminder that terrorists wanted to wreck democratic development- German President Joachim Gauck
Just before lunch, he said Malta was living up to its Phoenician name meaning “a place of refuge”.
“That is precisely what Malta is again today – a place of refuge for many fleeing across the Mediterranean to escape suffering and persecution.”
Mr Gauck insisted on the importance of looking at the causes of the refugee flows, including the “arc of crisis” from the Maghreb to the Middle East that was posing new challenges for foreign policy.
The attack on the Bardo museum in Tunisia in March was a reminder that terrorists wanted to wreck democratic development.
Four years from the start of the Arab upheaval, there was still a long way to go to attain democracy and political and economic stability, and our partners in the region depend on the EU’s help, he said.
In the same vein, Dr Muscat insisted that EU member states must all do their utmost to ensure that the situation in Libya stabilises as soon as possible and that migrant tragedies do not become accepted as normal occurrences.