The Presidents of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, are confident that European Union (EU) leaders will adopt the new pact on migration and asylum by the end of the year, where they will defend ‘strict’ requirements. .
“First of all, two days ago we had a great success with the agreement in the Council on crisis management, because this was an important piece of the whole puzzle of the pact on migration and asylum, so now the opportunity is very high and I am confident that we will be able to achieve the goal,” Ursula von der Leyen told the press.
Roberta Metsola also said upon arrival at an informal European Council, held in Granada by the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council and marked by discussions on migration, with no decisions being taken today due to the nature of the meeting, that she hopes for a “ migration package that works”.
“We need to deepen the legislative work so that at the end of the mandate, when we go to the European Parliament elections, we can tell our citizens that we have delivered on what we promised on migration. There is still a lot of work to be done. do, but I have confidence in it,” said the leader of the European Assembly.
One of the topics of the meeting will be the migration issue, two days after the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU gave the ‘green light’ to the new Pact for Migration and Asylum, in a provisional agreement on the crisis settlement. management, which provides an instrument of solidarity.
Following approval, legislative discussions will now take place between co-legislators, with the approval of the European Council, which is expected to take place at the European Council in December.
In statements to the press, Ursula von der Leyen emphasized the need for the EU to carry out “very strong operational work”.
“The short-term work is the work on the Lampedusa Ten-Point Plan and the medium-term work. Consider, for example, agreements such as the one we have concluded with Tunisia, and in this case it is important that we also look at structural improvements. the comprehensive partnership with countries of transit or origin, investments in these countries and also the establishment of legal pathways and humanitarian corridors,” said the president of the community board.
Furthermore, “we will be as strict as we can be with the return of those who do not qualify for asylum, because one thing must also be very clear: we have our international obligations and we will honor them.” […]but we, as Europeans, will decide who comes to Europe and under what circumstances, and not the traffickers,” concluded Ursula von der Leyen.
EU Heads of State and Government today in the Spanish city of Granada will discuss a Europe prepared for the next decade, marked by challenges such as migration and expansion to countries such as Ukraine.
A draft of the conclusions of this informal European summit, to which the Lusa agency had access, states that “migration is a European challenge that requires a European response”, especially with regard to irregular migration, which “must be addressed immediately and a determined way”.
European sources told Lusa today that it is not guaranteed that this issue will be part of the Granada Declaration due to the objections of Hungary and Poland, whose leaders claim they were not heard in the agreement reached.
Source: DN
