The President of the European Parliament (EP) hopes that “this week or next” the differences between the Member States of the European Union (EU) on new rules for the distribution of immigrants can be resolved in order to move forward with this file.
“Hopefully this week or next we will see an unlocking of the crisis mechanism. [de solidariedade] in the Council so that we can move forward with the migration pact,” declared Roberta Metsola, in an interview with Agência Lusa and other European news agencies, in Brussels.
In this interview about the European Newsroom project, of which Lusa is an observer member, the leader of the European assembly asked for “a majority in the Council and not a minority to block it”, days before European ministers meet with the authorities of Immigration in Brussels.
“I would say that it depends on the will. We can hide behind legal obstacles and say that it is the fault of the Council or the Commission, etc., [mas] “I am the President of Parliament, I want to be a negotiator at the table and I want to be the one who effectively brings solutions (…) and not the one who blocks,” he stressed.
Roberta Metsola assured that she is “optimistic” and “confident” in this release of the new solidarity mechanism, one of the main components of the asylum and migration reform and which translates into a distribution of migrants based on relocation. , financial contributions or alternative measures such as staff secondment or capacity development.
“Next week, on October 3, it will be 10 years since the tragedy of Lampedusa, when the Mediterranean Sea was considered the underground cemetery of the world, (…) and here we are again in the situation in which we find ourselves “, so “Everything must be done to unblock last-minute obstacles,” insisted Roberta Metsola.
On the night of October 2-3, 2013, a ship that had left Libya with 500 people on board caught fire near the Italian island. The ship sank and 360 deaths were reported.
These statements by Roberta Metsola come after, in the middle of this month, more than 10,000 immigrants arrived in just three days on the Italian island of Lampedusa.
The issue of migration will be on the table on Thursday at the meeting of EU interior ministers, which will provide an update on ongoing legislative debates to reform EU asylum law.
“We have to negotiate, we have to debate, we have to make sure that things are done correctly,” said Roberta Metsola in this interview with European news agencies.
Last June, EU Member States reached agreement, by majority (with two votes against and four abstentions), on a general approach to reforming asylum rules, at a meeting between the 27 ministers responsible for Migration.
Since then, the package has been discussed by the co-legislators (Council and European Parliament), with the aim of having a final agreement (given the necessary negotiation process) before the European elections in June 2024, to equitably share responsibilities between they. Member States and act in solidarity when addressing migration flows.
Proposed in September 2020 by the European Commission, the New Pact on Migration and Asylum was designed to manage and normalize migration in the long term, guaranteeing security, clarity and decent conditions for people arriving in the EU, but also a common approach at the community level. , based on solidarity, responsibility and respect for human rights.
The EU plans to relocate 30,000 immigrants a year and contribute 660 million euros to the fund intended to finance migration policy.
In this interview, Roberta Metsola was also asked about Germany’s recent announcement that it could establish short-term border controls with Poland and the Czech Republic to help curb human trafficking, even though these countries belong to the European free movement zone, known as Schengen. Area.
In this regard, the official added that “the rules say that there are specific reasons for closing borders, they have to be limited in time and they have to be justified.”
Therefore, “it is clear that it is worrying that there are prolonged controls at internal borders,” he added.
Source: TSF
